


God of Shinobi

by TheRoyalDragoon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, F/M, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:28:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRoyalDragoon/pseuds/TheRoyalDragoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone who is touched by a God can become strong, but what if you were trained by one? What if Hinata had just that opportunity? How will things turn out? NaruHina.StrongHinata.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
> 
> So this is a little story I started writing back in 2011 and posted on Fanfiction.net, before life got in the way. Its been 4 years since the last chapter was written, which is embarrassing given how short these chapters are. I've recently gotten back into fanfic writing, with this story getting another chapter. I can't guarantee regular updates, do to a decrease in the passion I have towards Naruto, but I will upload what I do have to this site.
> 
> Read, Review and tell me what you think.

Chapter 1

  
Hinata was in trouble. Of all the people she could have faced off with in the Chunin Exam, it had to be her cousin Neji. The genius. The prodigy. The one person she knew was better than her in all things. She fought as hard as she could, but even with Naruto's encouragement, she was still on the ground, having trouble breathing.

  
"You knew this would happen," said Neji with a confident air. "You knew you could never defeat me. Your fate was sealed the moment that I was named your opponent. You can never change your fate."  
Hinata looked up at him with a sad look in her eyes. She knew his pain and only wanted to help him, but he never let her. He always pushed her away and called her weak, pathetic, a disgrace. Just like everyone else in the Hyuga compound.

  
Slowly, Hinata began to stand up, coughing up some blood on the way. Shakily, she took a fighting stance; all the while Neji was glaring at her.

  
Kurenai looked down at her student with worry and concern. Things were looking very bad for the shy girl. Deep down, Kurenai had expected something like this to happen. She knew that Hinata was too weak to be a Chunin, but had let her enter the Exam in the hope that she would succeed. Now, that looked like a dim possibility.

  
Hinata looked at her cousin, ready to begin fighting again, when suddenly her head jolted up and she looked around at the catwalks. Kurenai thought that she was looking at her, but then she saw that Hinata was looking just a bit to her left. Kurenai, and everyone else in the large room, followed her line of sight and were shocked at what they saw.

  
Leaning up against the wall was a man. He had a dark cloak with a hood that hid most of his features. He was both tall and broad. He had large combat boots and a pair of metal-plated gloves on his hands. His appearance wasn't what shocked people. It was the fact that nobody had sensed him at all, not even the Hokage. He wasn't one of the Jonin sensei, so no one knew who he was.

  
Slowly the man opened his eyes, or at least he must have, because two golden orbs appeared in the mask of darkness the covered his face. The orbs looked around the room, glancing at the people present. Almost everyone involuntarily shuddered at the feeling of dread and insignificance. The Hokage furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to remember where he had felt this feeling before.

  
The only one not affected was Naruto, who was thinking more along the lines of "That is sooo cool! I have got to learn to do that!" He did feel a strange feeling in his gut as the stranger's eyes passed over him, like a small pain. He just chalked it up as being hungry from kicking Kiba's ass in the last match.

  
The stranger's eyes eventually landed on the two combatants in the ring below, particularly the female ninja. Hinata locked her lavender eyes onto the stranger's golden ones, and Kurenai was sure that a silent conversation was going on betwe

en the two. Kurenai's head was further turned upside down when she heard her student breathe the word sensei. Now she had to get some answers, but that had to wait as the stranger got up from the wall.  
The cloaked stranger walked over to the handrail, the almost silent clank confirmed that his boots had metal plates on the bottom. He gripped the railing, leaned over a bit and spoke.

  
"Hinata... kick his ass." His voice was deep and had an odd, ringing echo to it. It sent goosebumps down everyone's backs. Hinata merely nodded and straightened her back, suddenly not wobbling anymore. Neji clenched his teeth and activated his Byakugan. He was shocked to see his “weak” cousin's chakra points reopening and the damage from his previous assault vanishing.

  
His shock quickly turned to anger, caused mostly by confusion. How was his small, pitiful cousin, the disgrace of the Hyuga clan, standing there, tall, proud and without a hint of weakness?

  
With a snarl, Neji launched himself at Hinata, preparing a chakra strike right at her heart. He would end this once and for all. One can imagine his surprise when, just before his palm strike hit Hinata's heart, his hand was caught in a bone crushing grip. He looked up into Hinata's eyes and saw only strength and determination. A kick to his ribs caused him to spit up blood and a punch to his face sent him flying backwards.

  
Neji was now very confused and, by connection, very mad. His shy, introverted cousin, who would jump at her own shadow, had just landed two consecutive hits on him. The infuriating things was that she wasn't using the Gentle Fist style at all. In fact, he didn't know what style she was using. She was just standing there, with her hands at her side and a blank expression on her face. He raked his “genius” mind for an answer to this bizarre turn of events, but he was forced to stop when Hinata quickly did some hand signs.

  
“Water Style: Water Shot Jutsu.” A ball of water formed out of the air in front of Hinata and shot out at Neji at lighting speed. The watery projectile hit Neji square in the chest, sending him flying backwards and slamming into the wall. He had no time to recover as Hinata went through another series of hand signs.

  
“Earth Style: Rock Pillar Jutsu.” A column of earth appeared on the wall where Neji was still slightly embedded. It hit Neji in the back and sent him into the air again, this time towards Hinata. Everyone held their breathe as Neji hurled towards Hinata. Hinata took two steps to the right and held out her left arm. Neji's head hit her arm in a perfect clothesline and he instantly hit the ground on his back.

  
Neji struggled to get up. He was coughing up blood, his head was spinning and something in his body was definitely broken. He look up at Hinata and saw in her blank expression, something that look like...pity?

  
Neji gritted his blood-stained teeth. He would not be looked down upon by the disgrace of the Hyuga clan. Rage and adrenaline blocked out the pain and he stood up and once again charged Hinata. Hinata just calmly took a fighting stance as her enraged relative came at her and engaged him in a fast bout of taijutsu.

  
"We cannot lose." Kurenai and several other turned away from hand-to-hand fighting, which Hinata was clearly dominating, when the stranger spoke again. He was looking at the arena below with great intensity.  
"We cannot fail. We cannot falter," the stranger continued as Hinata got a series of hit on Neji. "We can never give up. For we are..."

  
Hinata swept at Neji's legs and for a few moments, he was upside down in the air. He was just able to register Hinata spinning around and thrusting a swirling ball of chakra at him.

  
"The Gods of Shinobi."

  
“Rasengan!.”

  
The Fourth's signature technique slammed into Neji's chest before an explosion of chakra sent him, once again, flying towards the wall. When he hit the wall, the force caused a small crater to form before he fell to the ground, unmoving.

  
Everyone was speechless. Even those who didn't know her were under the assumption that she was a weak, shy girl and had no hope of winning. But everything had been turn upside down when that mysterious man appeared. No one knew what to say.

  
"Ummm... Proctor?" Hayate closed his mouth and shook his head when he the soft voice of the female Hyuga. He looked over at her, wondering what she wanted.  
"Shouldn't you...call the match?" Hayate looked from Hinata to Neji's still form. He nearly slapped himself in the face.

  
"The winner is Hinata Hyuga." Silence reigned in the preliminary arena, broken only by Naruto's shouting.

  
"Whoa, way to go Hinata, you kicked his ass,” the blond said. Hinata smiled a big smile as she looked up her not-so-secret crush. Her head turned until it landed on the cloaked stranger. A bright white smile erupted from the dark mask that covered his face. He gave a slight nod and a thumbs up to Hinata, whose smile only got wider.

  
Everyone was dumbfounded at what they had witnessed. They, who lived in a world where people could walk on water and breathe fire, could not comprehend what happened. Neji and Hinata's teammates were especially shocked. Guy was also speechless, but inside hoped that this would do Neji some good, if he lived at all. He didn't want to sound uncaring, but his student had serious issues. He, for a lack of a better term, had no Flames of Youth in him.

  
As every ninja was picking their jaws off the floor, Kurenai moved to confront the man, intending to get some answers.

  
“Sorry, Kurenai. I'll explain everything at a later date,” the cloaked man said, barely turning his head in her direction. He let go of the rail, straighten his back and then completely vanished into thin air.

  
Now, disappearing quickly with either speed, genjutsu or both is a common and expected skill of shinobi. But none of the ensemble of skilled ninja; not the jonin, or Anbu or even the Hokage could track his movement or sense any chakra used. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. It was eerily similar to the Fourth's secret jutsu, especially given that use of the Rasengan in the fight.

  
The Hokage rubbed his forehead, trying to fight off the coming headache. So many mysteries had just surfaced in the past few minutes and he would have to attempt to solve them. He knew that wouldn't be a easy task.

  
The Third also couldn't shake the feeling that he had met that strange man before, somewhere in his now-distant youth. What he did know for sure was that things were going to get very interesting soon.


	2. Chapter 2

 

**Chapter 2**

 

Kurenai walked sullenly down the streets of Konoha. So much had happened during the preliminaries that, one week later, she was still trying to process everything.

 

_Flashback_

 

Kurenai, along with the others in the room, was still speechless over the stranger's disappearance as Hinata climbed back up to the catwalk. Kurenai quickly got back to her senses and moved over to the stairs, determined to definitely get answers now.

 

"Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said, looking up from the top step. "Everything is fine." Kurenai's demands for an explanation were caught in her throat. Hinata's eyes conveyed a desire, a wish, for the topic to be dropped for now. Kurenai was torn about what to do, but seeing her student's eyes and knowing that she had never lied before in her life, she decided to forget the issue for now.

 

The rest of the preliminary fights took place, with everyone glancing over at Hinata throughout, trying to size up what kind of threat she actually was. This would be all for naught, as Hinata reverted back to her old self, as if the fight never happened. She acknowledged Shino's slight nod of congratulations with a small blush on her face, a blush that grew substantially when Naruto gave his own loud praise. Even Shikamaru couldn't figure it out and chalked it up as being 'too troublesome'.

 

After the final fight was decide, all the winners were called down to the floor. These were Naruto, Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro, Shino, Gaara, Dosu, the absent Sasuke, and Hinata. They all took numbers to figure out the order of the fights in the Exam finals. When everything was sorted out, the results were Naruto vs Sasuke in the first round, Shino vs Kankuro in the third and Shikamaru fighting Dosu, the winner of that fight facing off against Temari.

 

Though the fight between the two Konoha teammates did cause some raised eyebrows, as fights between teammates in the first round of the finals were quite rare, it was was the combatants for the second match that caused a lot of concern. As fate had decided that whoever held the number 3 and 4 cards would have to fight each other, and those two people were Gaara of the Sand and Hinata Hyuga.

 

The red-haired Sand ninja looked over to the white-eyed girl, trying to judge if she was worthy to prove his existence. To his mild surprise, she looked right back at him, without any fear whatsoever. She even gave him a little smile.

 

As the two other Sand siblings were silently gawking at the balls that little Hyuga must have had, Naruto could barely contain his excitement.

 

" _Yes, now I can fight Sasuke and show everyone how much better I am_ ," Naruto thought to himself, almost hopping up and down. " _When I beat him to a pulp, everyone will recognize me and Sakura will finally love me_." He was convinced that this match would change his life. As he would come to realize in time, fate had a sense of humour.

 

After the Hokage gave his speech about what the Exam was really about and dismissed them for the one month they had before the Finals, Kurenai walked up to Hinata and offered to train her for her match. Seeing Gaara's immense strength, she figured that she would need all help she could get. She secretly also hoped to pry some information out about the cloaked stranger and how she learned those techniques. To her complete astonishment, Hinata flatly refused her assistance. She gave the argument that Shino was also facing a strong opponent and would need as much training as possible before his own match. When asked what she was going to do for her training period, she simply smiled and said that everything was taken care of.

 

_End Flashback_

 

Kurenai sighed for what had to be the hundredth time that day. Everything was so confusing now. She had built her life and career on knowing what was true in the world. This was necessary if she was to create perfect illusions.

 

But now everything had turned upside down. What she thought she knew for sure had been false. She had so many questions that she wanted answered that she felt her head would explode. She didn't blame Kiba for not believing her and Shino when they told him about Hinata's match in the hospital. She barely believed it herself.

 

Speaking of Hinata, she hadn't seen a trace of her all week long. She had tried to find her during the spare time she had from training Shino but couldn't find her anywhere. She looked for her at her house and at every training ground in the village. She even trailed Naruto around for a bit, hoping to catch Hinata doing the same thing.

 

No luck at all. The people at the Hyuga compound said very little, but from what Kurenai could gather, they had no idea where their heiress was either. All the training grounds were either completely empty or were being used by other Genin teams. Naruto himself spent very little time inside of the village, always leaving in the morning to go to some place in the outside forest. Kurenai had no time available to follow him to his private training area in the slim chance of finding Hinata. It was like she completely disappeared, just like that cloaked stranger.

 

She sighed again.

 

Suddenly a flicker of chakra appeared right it front of her. She tensed briefly, but relaxed when she saw the familiar porcelain mask of Konoha's ANBU.

 

"Kurenai, the Hokage requests your presence at the Hokage tower immediately," said the ANBU man.

 

" _Straight to the point_ ," thought Kurenai. In reality, she was glad that he had shown up. She may finally be able to get some information from the Hokage. The fact that she could sense the ANBU's approach restored some of her badly-shaken confidence.

 

"Thank you, I'll head over there right now." The ANBU gave only a small nod to her reply and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

 

Kurenai put more than a little haste into her steps as she headed over to the Hokage tower. She was very anxious to get to the bottom of this mystery. As she quickly moved down the street towards the center of the village, she subtly noticed several other Jonin making there way to the Hokage tower as well. Some were walking along the street like she was, while others were jumping on the rooftops. It was obvious that Kurenai wasn't the only one summoned by the Hokage and that this situation may be far more serious then she originally thought.

 

Upon reaching the tower, Kurenai and the other Jonin were quickly ushered into the Hokage's office by a very tired-looking secretary. The Hokage himself was standing in front of his desk and looked much older than usual. The fact that he was standing and not sitting at his desk proved that he had a grave matter to discuss with the village's elite ninja.

 

"I assume, through the grapevine, you all know what took place during one of the preliminary matches of the Chunin exam."

 

It was almost stupid of him to say this. Such an upset as Hinata Hyuga's match was almost unheard of. In the Chunin exam, and in the ninja world as a whole, the strong won and the weak lost. Even incredibly young participants like Itachi and Kakashi showed great talent before they entered the exam.

 

As a result, pretty much every Jonin and Chunin had heard about what happened during the match.

 

"I also assume that you heard that the Fourth's technique, the Rasengan, was utilized by one Hinata Hyuga."

 

This news still shocked many people who were not there to witness it themselves. No one in the village had ever even attempted to learn the Rasengan, due to it both being incredibly difficult and the fact that the technique itself was sealed into the village's Forbidden Scroll. For anybody to be able use it, especially the shy Hyuga girl, was completely unbelievable.

 

"Halfway during the match, a strange shinobi appeared in the arena undetected and perpetrated a drastic change in Hinata Hyuga's skill level. After the match had ended, the mysterious ninja disappeared without a trace."

 

The Hokage was still retelling week-old information, but it was significant that he was saying it himself.

 

"The Intelligence division has pooled all of its resources into uncovering this man's identity, with no luck so far."

 

The ninjas present could practically see the tiredness in his voice. The dark lines etched into the Hokage's wrinkled face was proof of many long hours of work.

 

"I've decided that you all should be warned and be on the lookout for anything suspicious. It would be disastrous for our village's reputation if something happened during the Chunin exam."

 

The Jonin nodded grimly. Any sort of incident during the exam, with all the nobles and other ninja village representatives present, could damage Konoha's claim to being the strongest ninja village in the world. This would result in the loss of high-paying mission requests that were vital for the village's survival.

 

Still, they didn't have much to go on. A very vague description and the knowledge that he possessed great infiltration skills.

 

"Before you are all dismissed, I have one thing left to ask. Kurenai, do you know the current whereabouts of Hinata Hyuga?"

 

Kurenai was taken back by the question. She _was_ the girl's sensei, but with his ANBU and crystal ball, the Hokage would know where she was long before he need to ask Kurenai.

 

"Ummm...no Lord Hokage, I haven't seen her all week."

 

The Hokage gave a long sigh.

 

"Neither have we," He said simply. "The ANBU have only been able to catch glimpses of her as she leaves and return to her home. It is like she disappears in the morning and reappears at night. We have no idea where she is during the course of the day."

 

This shocked everyone in the room. How could a young Genin, great talent or not, escape the eyes of Konoha's ANBU? Something was definitely wrong.

 

" _Hinata, were could you be?_ " was the thought passing through the now very worried Kurenai's mind.

 

"If you want to know, all you have to do is ask."

 

Every ninja, Hokage included, jumped at the the sound of the voice. They all spun around in the direction of the Hokage's desk, many drawing weapons.

 

Sitting in the Hokage's chair, armored boots up on the desk, was the cloaked shinobi from the preliminary match. His hands were behind his hooded head and his overall posture was very relaxed. His face was still masked in unnatural darkness, broken only by his glowing golden eyes and white teeth that were in the form of a smile.

 

It was very difficult to surprise a Jonin, let alone a Kage, but this man had done so effortlessly. To get into the Hokage's offices, with the Hokage and a group of skilled ninja present should have been all but impossible. But here was a man sitting leisurely in the Hokage's chair, with nobody having detected him at all.

 

The Hokage was about to confront the man and demand some answers but was beaten to it by Kurenai.

 

"Where is Hinata, you bastard?!" Kurenai all but shouted at him, a week-long frustration finally boiling over. She wanted answers and she wanted them NOW!

 

The man shifted his gaze over to the irate woman, letting a tense silence last for several moments before speaking.

 

"Hinata is safe and sound. You have no need to worry." The man's voice still carried that uneasy echo to it, but it, and the words, did little to calm Kurenai down.

 

"Safe, **Safe!** She's just a child! You're probably using her you sick bastard!" Kurenai screamed. Now, picking a fight with an obviously powerful shinobi was high of the list of stupid things a new Jonin could do, but Kurenai's protective nature towards Hinata blocked out all reasoning. She pulled out two kunai and was ready to rip his throat open.

 

The man closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Quicker than anyone could see, he flipped over the desk and put his face within a few inches of Kurenai's. For several seconds, focused gold eyes bored into shocked crimson. He finally straightened his back, but kept his eyes on the still women.

 

"Kurenai," the man said, in a very soft tone. "Trust me."

 

Kurenai was dumbfounded, but this soon was replace once again with anger.

 

"Trust you. You sneak into our village, kidnap my student," she jabbed the point of her kunai at him, "and you expect us to trust you. You won't even show us your face and you want trust." To Kurenai, this man's audacity was staggering.

 

The man tilted his cloaked head slightly.

 

"If you want to see my face, all you have to do is ask."

 

This took everyone aback a bit and even calmed Kurenai down as the man's hands reached up and pulled his hood down.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A hush fell upon all of the ninja assembled in the Hokage's office as the strange shinobi's hood came off, revealing his entire face.

On the surface, he was only mildly impressive. This was mostly due to the inflated images conjured up in the minds of the gathered jonin. His hair was short; light brown in colour and slightly unkempt. It wasn't overly messy, just that it appeared that he didn't put much effort into caring for it. His skin was tanned, showing that he didn't wear that hood all the time, and punctured by two pale white scars, one going across his left cheek and the other going over his right eye; the latter made the assembled ninja think of the scar Kakashi sported on his left eye. He didn't appear much older than 30.

Kurenai had to admit that he was kind of handsome, in a rugged sort of way.

But of course his most outstanding feature was his eyes. Though they didn't glow anymore with the mask of unnatural darkness the hood provided, they still shone with an internal brilliance. Whatever had caused that scar over his eye obviously did no damage to the eye itself.

The newly revealed, and somewhat good-looking man, leaned back on the Hokage’s desk. Kurenai could see just how large this man was. He towered over everyone in the room and one had to wonder how a man this big could sneak around so well.

“OK, so we know what he looks like, but we still need his name if we are to find out any information about him later on.” Kurenai’s sharp, analytical mind had finally recovered from the recent series of events and was now in full swing. She knew that they would need as much information on this man as possible to evaluate what threat he may pose to the village, and now was the best chance they had to get it.

Kurenai, whose eyes naturally went downwards when in deep thought, looked up and saw a mischievous smile on the man's face.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “All I have to do is ask, right?” Many in the room were confused by her question. They grew more so when the man gave a small nod. Kurenai opened her eyes and asked, “What is your name?”

A long silence lapsed. The man got up from the desk, did a small bow and gave the most-sought answer in Konoha for the last week.

“Kamashin. It’s my name, title and general job description.”

Kurenai couldn’t stop a tick mark from forming on her forehead. Kamashin, God of Shinobi. To her, this man’s arrogance knew no bounds. 

“So you’re a god, huh?” Kurenai sneered, “Looks like you’ve done a pretty shitty job up till now.” She was referring to the many bloody wars that have been fought over the course of shinobi history.

All merriment left the face the newly named Kamashin and his golden eyes seemed to darken considerably. A huge wave of Killing Intent washed over the room and Kurenai and several others were almost knocked off their feet. The Hokage was the only one not to show any outward reaction, but inside he was alarmed. If this man could strike unimaginable terror into the hearts of his best ninja without moving a muscle, Sarutobi didn't want to imagine what he could do in a fight.

“Kurenai," Kamashin's voice was hard and threatening. “My job is to keep the balance in the world, not the peace.” The red-eyed jonin was completely paralysed, never having felt this much fear before, even when the Nine-Tails attacked the village.

As quickly as it came, the oppressive feeling coming from Kamashin vanished, allowing everyone to breathe again. A smile returned to his face, though it was smaller now. Kurenai shook her head and was about to continue her “interrogation,” albeit more delicately now.

“Kurenai," Kamashin interrupted, seemingly reading her mind again. “Perhaps it would be best it you let your boss do the talking now.” Kurenai's moment of confusion ended when she realized that she had stolen the Third's thunder with her angry outburst. With a hasty and embarrassed bow to the Hokage, she holstered her kunai and stepped aside. 

She moved to stand next to Asuma and she could have sworn that Kamashin's smile got a little bigger, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why.

The Hokage stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Anyway, so your name is Kamashin...”

“Yes, I’m the God of All Shinobi”. Kamashin's eyes had a mischievous glint in them as he interrupted the Hokage, which under normal circumstances was a very foolish thing to do.

“Cheeky bastard," Sarutobi though, letting the challenge to his authority over the ninja of the village slide for the moment.

“What is your business here in the village?” The Third’s voice and stern look brooked no argument and would have forced any other ninja into bowing to his will.

It had no effect on the self-proclaimed god, who leaned back against the Hokage’s desk. “Well, you know, I’m just here to take in all of the fabulous sights in the village and to have some fun.” If Kamashin though that this statement would allay the concerns of the Leaf ninja, he was dead wrong.

“Is this all some sort of sick game to you?!” Kurenai’s voice once again rose in volume as she took a threatening step forward. Asuma’s hand grabbed her shoulder and restrained her from going any further. A warning glare from the Hokage stopped any more thoughts of belligerent action from the young female jonin.

“I'm tired of your games,” Sarutobi snarled shifting his gaze to the man who was leaning up against his desk. “You will tell me what your business in the village is and what your intentions for Hinata Hyuga are and you will tell me NOW!” The Hokage's physician would not like all the stress he was putting himself though, but like Kurenai, concern for the well being of his home and ninja came before anything else.

“OK, OK, I can assure you that I neither hold ill will toward the village nor have some sick and twisted plan for one Hinata Hyuga.”

“Oh, then why are you sneaking around the place?”

“What can I say? I’m a really shy person.” Everyone present could detect the insincerity in his voice. Several seconds passed in silence, as if Kamashin was still hoping they would buy his story. All he received was room full of hard glares. 

“Fine, fine, you people have no sense of humour.” Kamashin sighed, “I’m just here to help train Hinata for the Chunin Exam. No harm in that, right?”

“You have no right to come in and steal my student!” Kurenai shrugged off Asuma's hand and advanced towards Kamashin, fury burning in her crimson eyes. A thousand thoughts of how this man must have tricked and manipulated poor Hinata raced through her mind.

“Speak for yourself; technically you stole her from me.” This statement stopped Kurenai right in her tracks.

“Wh...What are you talking about?” 

“Well, you've only been training her for about a month or so right?," Kurenai gave a small nod. “ Well... I've been training her, off and on, for about 5 years now.” A stunned silence filled the room from this latest revelation.

The Third Hokage rubbed his temples, trying vainly to fight off the oncoming migraine. All these surprises in such a short time was wearing out his already tired mind.

“Enough with all these riddles already. I want the complete truth now.” Sarutobi didn't raise his voice this time, but his anger and frustration was visible to all. Surprisingly, Kamashin seemed to take the hint this time.

“Alright already, let me start at the beginning”. Kamashin clasped his hands together and began to pace in front of the assembled ninja as he began his tale. “It was 5 years ago now when I first met our shy Hyuga girl. She was a very sad and incredibly lonely child and I felt compelled to help her. And not in that way,” Kamashin said pointedly, fixing his eyes on Kurenai as he spoke. 

As Kamashin was talking and pacing, the Hokage continued what he had been doing since the beginning, studying this 'God' and learning as much as possible. He noticed for the first time that Kamashin's cloak wasn't black as he originally thought. It was close, but not quite. It seemed oily and was completely unreflective of light. It was actually kind of hard to focus on it for any stretch of time. Under the cloak was what appeared to be a full body suit of the same material. With his boots and gloves on, only his head was exposed and that was only because he had taken his hood down. No wonder he could sneak around the village so easily, with clothing like that. Though, Sarutobi knew, the art of stealth relied more on skill than equipment.

Sarutobi looked up and saw a knowing, yet unworried look on Kamashin's face. He realized that Kamashin knew what he, along with several other jonin he was sure, was doing but didn't care in the slightest. He appeared to be so supremely confident in his abilities that any information that the Konoha ninja discovered would be irrelevant.

Despite all of what he knew about being a good and responsible leader, Sarutobi was almost tempted to prove this man wrong. Deep down, however, he knew he would only die if he tried.

“Since Konoha is a shinobi village, training Hinata as a shinobi seemed the best way to help her,” Kamashin continued, “and being the God of Shinobi, I felt I was more than qualified to train her.”

“Stealing the heiress to the Hyuga clan isn't the smartest thing to do," Kurenai interrupted. “ I mean, Hiashi will kill you if he finds out, God or not.”

Kamashin smirked and stopped his pacing. He reached into his cloak and pulled out silver pocket watch. “Speaking of that white-eyed bastard, he should be here in 3, 2, 1...”

All the ninja in the room, who were focused on Kamashin, gave a start when the door to the Hokage's office slammed open, revealing the stern visage of Hiashi Hyuga.

“Lord Hokage, it has come to my attention that you are holding a meeting that directly relates to the current whereabouts of my daughter. I demand that I be told any and all information known at this time and...” Hiashi's tirade was cut short when he noticed that instead of the Hokage being at the front of the room, an unknown man with golden eyes and a black cloak was standing there. A man whose general description matched that of the one who showed up during Hinata's fight in the Exam.

“You! Are you the one who has been fraternizing with my daughter and causing her long absences?" Hiashi did not shout, but it was as close to it as anyone had seen before. The leader of the Hyuga clan was usually a calm and collected man, but the recent series of events had evidently riled him up badly.

Kamashin, who gave a big smile and a wave in the face of those accusations, did not help calm the irate clan leader down.

“Insolent whelp, do you know who I am!” Hiashi advanced towards Kamashin, the crowd parting to let him through. Despite the fact that all present where high-level ninjas with years of experience, everyone backed away in fear of the enraged Hyuga. Sarutobi gave a heavy sigh and prepared to step in if things got too ugly.

“But who will I be trying to save from being killed?” Sarutobi knew that any fight between the two wouldn't end well, but for whom he wasn’t sure.

Kamashin closed his pocket watch and placed it back inside his cloak. He stopped smiling and gave a Hiashi a bored look.

“I know who you are. I know you're a complete and utter bastard who thinks everyone is beneath him. I know that you are a man who abandoned his own family,” Kamashin did not shout, though one could imagine it.

Those words infuriated Hiashi more than anything had ever done before. He activated his Byakugan and pumped chakra into his hands, ready to turn Kamashin's organs into mush. The jonin backed away, not sure of what to do while Sarutobi got ready to intervene. Kamashin himself gave no outward sign of concern.

Hiashi tried to calm his breathing, his rage overcoming his Hyuga discipline. “Who are you and what have you done to Hinata?!” Hiashi slowly spat the question out, his clouded reasoning being that this man deserved to explain himself before his died at his hands. 

“Who am I?” Kamashin asked with genuine surprise. “I am one who has walked through the fires of this damnable world. I have levelled mountains with a single strike and caused seas to boil over. I have watched countries and empires rise and fall like the sun. I have defeated foes whose power makes your entire village look insignificant. I have had a hand in the lives of almost every great ninja that has walked this earth. Even you, my young monkey boy.”

Sarutobi's eyes widen has he finally remembered where he had met Kamashin before, but it had been so long ago, it didn't seem possible. But that face and personality, it was the exact same as that of the man he had met when he was just a boy.

Kamashin's little speech gave enough time for Hiashi to calm his anger, but he still wanted answers. “No matter, what have you done with my daughter?” Hiashi still had his Byakugan activated and was prepared to strike Kamashin in the heart if he didn't answer.

“Why, I'm just doing a little experiment. Wait, wait. Let me explain,” Kamashin held up his hands defensively, seen that not only was Hiashi going to attack him, but Kurenai was once again reaching for her kunai.

“As I said, I've had a hand in the creation of some of the greatest ninjas that have ever lived. I'm taking about the big legends that you were told about as kids. Most of the Kages, the original Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, the Gold and Silver Brothers of the Cloud and many more. Well, all I really did was give some small advice on one or two occasions. A little bit of my help set them on the path toward greatness,” Kamashin looked around and saw that everyone was paying close attention. “Now I ask you, what would happen if, instead of simply giving some advice, I trained a person instead?” He let this sink in before going on.

“Why, they would become a God themselves.”


	4. Chapter 4

A stunned silence filled the room as everyone tried to process what had just been said. The thought that poor, little Hinata could become the single most powerful person in the village, no the whole world, was a little more than their brains could process.

“A...a god?” Kurenai couldn't keep the sheer bewilderment out of her voice. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her student, the girl she had known since she was practically a toddler, was in all likelihood stronger then she was. Everything was so confusing now, and if Asuma wasn't standing behind her, she would have probably fallen down onto the floor.

“Well, technically a god-in-training. She still has a long way to go,” Kamashin said, raising his hand to his face in a thinking pose. “Or would it be goddess-in-training? Wait!” Kamashin lifted his hand. “Don't answer that. I'd prefer not getting into a discussion about the gender-appropriate title for deities. My head still hurts from the last one.” Kamashin rubbed his temples at the last remark. 

“So...I can safely assume that you are the one who taught Hinata the Rasengan?” the Hokage posed this question carefully. Now that his old memory had finally worked out who Kamashin was, he needed to tread lightly or else he was sure the consequences would be dire.

“Yeah, what were you thinking, teaching her a technique that dangerous?” Kurenai knocked herself out of her stupor, anger rising once again. The Hokage nearly slapped himself in the face. Kurenai couldn't see the delicate situation they were all in and her belligerence was not helping one bit.

“Well, I guess I can give you that much,” Kamashin coincided “That technique was a little bit overboard.”

“A LITTLE! She could have been seriously hurt, hell; she almost killed her cousin with it.” Kurenai's anger was truly something to behold. Asuma slowly lifted his hand off her shoulder, fearing that she would tear it off and use it to beat Kamashin to death.

“You misunderstand me.” Kamashin looked calmly at Kurenai. “I meant Hinata went overboard using the Rasengan. There were a dozen other techniques that she could have used to finish the fight. I guess she really wanted to show off what she could do.” Kamashin shook his head and gave a short laugh before adding, “And if she wanted to kill her cousin, she could have done that years ago.”

Kurenai's anger died away again and was replaced with confusion and sadness. She couldn't believe that for all these years, she had never been able to see the true Hinata. Were all her hopes and dreams a lie, too? Had she really done anything for her? But the most burning question in her mind was: is she safe right now?

Kamashin smiled at Kurenai's internal contemplation. He could read her and everyone else like a book. Although she was slowly coming to the full realization of Hinata's true power, she was still worried about her. She would make a good mother someday.

Kamashin shifted his gaze to the scowling Hiashi, his smile fading. One would think that even a cold bastard like him would be happy that his daughter was being trained to become a God. Not so with the Hyuga clan head. As Hinata's father, he believed that all of her successes should be attributed to him. The only things she could ever truly own were her mistakes and failures. He saw Hinata's tutelage under Kamashin as a direct threat and insult as head of the Hyuga clan and as Hinata's father. Never mind that the skills she had acquired could greatly benefit the clan as a whole. All he cared about was his pride.

He was a soulless bastard, no question about it.

Kamashin clapped his hand before him, surprisingly startling a few of the Jonin who were lost in their own thoughts, Kurenai included.

“I do believe that this meeting is now over. I have said all that I came here to say.”

This declaration did not go over very well.

“WHAT! You can't just waltz in and out as you like. You still haven't told me were my daughter is located!” Again, Hiashi did not shout, but his anger was made very clear.

“Yes, you still haven't given us Hinata's current whereabouts or any evidence that she is unharmed,” the Hokage said; his voice was much calmer, though it did have a twinge of surprise due to the fact that he was in agreeance with the Hyuga clan head, a very rare occurrence. A quick glance also showed that Kurenai was also silently asking the same question.

Kamashin merely smiled. “Don't worry, I told you she was safe didn't I? You can trust the word of a God, can't you?” To the surprise of all, his words did have a calming effect. For some reason, they all felt that they could trust him and that everything would be alright.

Then the bomb dropped.

“The volcano that she's training on won't erupt until Wednesday.” A very stunned silence filled the room, everyone too shocked to do anything than stare at the smiling Kamashin.

It was Asuma that was first to recover, in a sense, from this curve ball by making a simple observation

“Isn't today Wednesday?”

Kamashin's eyes went wide and his smile disappeared. He quickly took out his silver pocket watch again and stared intently at it for a minute.

“Shit, your right. I'd better get moving or else we'll have a barbecued Hyuga on our hands.” Kamashin placed his hands in front of himself, preparing to perform a jutsu.

“No, wait...” The Hokage reached out to stop him, but, before he could move more than a step forward, a column of fire appeared, surrounding Kamashin. A second later, the flames expanded outwards, causing everyone to put their hands up to protect themselves. When the expected sensation of being burned didn't happen, they opened their eyes to see that the fire, and Kamashin, were gone. The Hokage quickly surmised that the fire was just an illusion and part of an over-the-top Body Flicker.

“Clever bastard,” was all the Hokage could say at the moment.

Kurenai was staring at the floor, unmoving.

“Hinata....god....volcano....what?” she said, barely a whisper, yet everyone was able to hear it. She raised her eyes forward and then promptly fainted. Asuma was able to catch her before she hit the floor and carried her over to the couch off to the side.

The Hokage could feel a headache coming on.

Everyone turned at the sound of Hiashi clearing his throat.

“Well, I believe my business here is concluded for the moment. I expect any updates on my daughter's whereabouts to be brought to my attention immediately,” he said; without even waiting for an acknowledgement, the Hyuga clan leader quickly left the room.

“Well...this was a very interesting meeting.”

Asuma's simple words actually brought a smile to his father's face. Sarutobi realized that he saying it more to hide his embarrassment of trying to get Kurenai comfortable on the couch without touching her in the wrong places than anything else. It did, however, unintentionally bring a fact to Sarutobi's attention.

“Yes...it's also interesting that Hiashi knew the exact time and place of a secret Jonin meeting.” The Hokage glared at the Hyuga Jonins present, who at the moment found the floor, walls and ceiling to be very interesting.

The Hokage closed his eyes to reduce the pain in his head. “All I need now is for Kakashi to show up,” he thought to himself.

The door opened at that precise moment and in walked the chronically late Copy-Ninja himself.

“Yo, sorry I'm late; I just got lost on the road of life. What did I miss?” Kakashi was nearly blown over by the hard glares and Killing Intent of his fellow Jonin. He sensed a long explanation was needed to understand what was going on.

The Hokage pressed a hand to his temple, trying to stave off the pounding headache he was developing.

***********************************************************************************

Outside of Konoha

Kamashin quickly and effortlessly jumped through the trees that surrounded the village. It was almost absurdly easy to dodge the guard patrols; they were still using the same posts and routes that they had 50 years ago. Any normal ninja would have found unlawful entry into the village near-impossible, but Kamashin was not any normal ninja. Far from it.

He stopped in a small clearing that was a good distance from the village. He reached into the left side of his cloak before stopping, as if thinking better of what he had been about to do. He reached into the right side and took out his pocket watch again. He looked at it for several seconds.

“I'll give her 5 more minutes.” Those 5 minutes passed for Kamashin like any other stretch of time. On one hand, it was over in an instant, almost like it had never been there to begin with. At the same time, each second felt like a day, a year, and it was like an eternity before the allocated time-span had expired. It was a strange phenomenon, but it came with the job.

When the 5 minutes were up, Kamashin reached back into the left side of his cloak again and pulled out a large scroll. He placed the scroll on the edge of the clearing, parallel to the centre, and gently pushed it. From the way that it was placed, the scroll should have only travelled a short distance before hitting one of the surrounding trees. But, instead of following physics, the rolling pile of paper turned and followed the perimeter of the clearing. It continued to unravel, rolling in a circle until the entire ground was covered.

Kamashin looked down at the now-paper-covered ground. The scroll was covered in seals, so complex and intricate that it would have made Jiraiya and the Fourth Hokage dizzy. He began to walk on the paper, his armoured boots conspicuously not leaving dirt, or any other mark as he moved. He stopped a good distance from the centre, at one particular seal that, to anyone else, was indistinguishable from the rest. He placed his hand down upon the seal and channelled some chakra into it. A large cloud of smoke appeared from the seal and Kamashin took a few steps back. When the smoke had cleared, there lying on her stomach, head down, was the girl who had caused all the commotion lately.

“Hinata...are you still alive?” she wasn't moving at all, though from what Kamashin could tell, she was unhurt. Just a little singed. “Hinata...” Kamashin knelt down and put out the small fire that was burning on one of her outward strands of hair with his fingers. “Hinata...”

Without sound or warning, Hinata suddenly jumped up and aimed a kick at Kamashin, so fast that any normal ninja would have had no time to react. But Kamashin was not any normal ninja. From the split second that Hinata's muscles tensed up, Kamashin read what she was planning on doing and had already jumped back 10 feet before she had launched her attack.

She knew she couldn't hit him, no matter how fast she struck. She just wanted him to know her feeling at this moment. If the kick wasn't enough, the look on Hinata's face made it very clear that she was not amused at all.

“Sensei...that wasn't nice.” Hinata, very similar to her father, did not shout when she was angry, but her tone underlay the desire to rip Kamashin's head off in the most painful way possible.

Kamashin merely smiled at her. “Now, now, Hinata. There's no need to get angry. It's not like you're hurt or anything.” Hinata was wearing her normal clothes, minus her bulky jacket and headband, and other than a few tears, scorch marks and the left sleeve being burnt off, she was perfectly fine.

Hinata advanced toward Kamashin, finger pointing at him accusingly. “Don't give me that. You told me that the volcano was extinct. You lied to me,” she accused, trying to give him a hard glare, but with all the soot on her face, it made her look more cute than menacing. Kamashin noticed that not a speck of ash got on the paper on the ground when she walked forward.

Kamashin's smile widened a fraction. She was learning. 

“Actually, I said it was dormant, not extinct. Dormant means that it could erupt at any time. Though I do assure you that I didn't know that today was the day of its long-delayed eruption.” Everything, from his tone and face to the timing of his reverse summon being just perfect, screamed that he wasn't telling the truth.

Hinata gave a long sigh, her anger slowly dissipating. In reality, she should have seen something like this coming. She had been dealing with Kamashin and his eccentric (and near-homicidal) behaviour for years now. When he told her that she would be training on an extinct, er, dormant, volcano, she really should have known something was up. Besides, she could never stay mad at him, given all that he had done for her over the years.

She would still get back at him, though, no question there.

Seeing that Hinata had calmed down, Kamashin decided to continue, “I summoned you back early because I've decided to change your training regime.” 

This caught Hinata's attention and temporarily made her stop plotting revenge. “What, Why?” Despite Kamashin’s normal behaviour, this decision still seemed sudden, even considering her old training ground was now covered in cooling magma. Normally he would have her keep training on the volcano, lava be damned.

“Well, it's seems you're more popular then you thought.” As Kamashin spoke, he walked towards the centre of clearing. He reached down and picked up the end of the scroll. “Your Jonin sensei and the Hokage were throwing a big fuss over me showing up and you disappearing.” Kamashin tapped a chakra-infused finger against the scroll's end. The scroll began to roll itself up again. The paper on the ground slithered back to its point of origin, sliding out from under the two ninja's feet without any difficulty. Within a few seconds, the scroll was back to its rolled-up form.

“What happened?” Hinata asked, genuinely surprised that her disappearance had caused a big problem. Even with Kamashin's teachings, Hinata still had a low opinion of her value to others. Her father had been very thorough in that regard. Kamashin popping out of nowhere causing trouble, she could see. Her showing true battle prowess and then vanishing doing so, she couldn't.

Kamashin shook his head at the thoughts that he knew were going through Hinata's head right now. He walked up to her and quickly struck her across the head with his scroll before storing it back inside of his cloak.

“Don't sell yourself short, girl. A major turnaround like that in the Exams, even a preliminary match, almost never happens. So of course people are going to want answers and when the girl from whom they could get answer disappears without a trace, they start to make a ruckus. You understand?”

Hinata rubbed her head. There was a painful bump forming, but despite that, her spirit lifted from hearing Kamashin's words. “Thanks, Sensei.” A thought than occurred to her “Umm...so what did happen today, exactly?”

“Well, I heard tell that the Hokage was holding a meeting with his Jonin on the topic of a missing Hyuga girl and a ridiculously handsome and overall awesome shinobi. I decided to pop on in and explain the situation, at least as much of it as they need to know right now.”

Hinata nodded, mentally filtering out Kamashin's self-praise and not bothering to point out that he had his hood up during the preliminary match, so no one would know what he looked like. Something she learned fairly quickly was not to bring up these holes in his stories. Doing so would hurt his feelings and when that happened he would more often than not use her as a punching bag during her next training session.

Training with Kamashin was certainly a unique experience.

A question popped into Hinata's mind, a question she already knew the answer to, but had to ask anyway. “Umm...Sensei, was...was my father at the meeting?”

Kamashin did not answer right away. Instead he reached into his cloak and pulled a large sake jug with the kanji for 'Immortality' on it.

“Yes, he was there,” Kamashin commented, pulling the cork out and taking a long swig of the alcoholic beverage. It didn't matter how much he drank since he couldn't get drunk. It was just a distraction from what he had to do next. He didn’t have to look at Hinata's face to know that there was a spark of hope, hope that her father really did care about her.

“But,” Kamashin continued, putting the jug away, “he was there for himself and no one else.” And with that, the hope was crushed. Hinata looked down at the ground, her face impassive. It wasn't surprising to her at all, but it hurt all the same. Even in the grim world of ninjas, Hinata held onto the dream of having a perfect, happy family. But, with the current situation at the Hyuga compound, that was an impossible dream even with the powers of a god.

Kamashin frowned. He could deal with the death and horror that war could bring without shedding a tear, but seeing Hinata so down broke his heart, for whatever reasons, he still wasn't sure. He pulled out a handkerchief from his cloak. Hinata looked up with a questioning look.

“You have some soot on your face,” Kamashin answered. Hinata gave a small smile as she took the offered handkerchief and wiped the soot and unshed tears from her face. Kamashin could be sensitive when he needed to be.

“OK, since the last site was, unexpectedly, lost, we'll train in the village for the rest of the Exam. Use the rest of the day to prepare.” Hinata was surprised by this change up. It had been a long while since she had last trained with Kamashin in Konoha. The more advanced techniques that he was teaching her would have drawn too much attention so he would teleport both of them to more remote locations.

What was more surprising was that Kamashin was essentially giving her the rest of the day off. The God of Shinobi had a very erratic schedule, or at least it appeared so, Hinata had no idea what exactly he did when he was away. The duties of the God of Shinobi were also pretty vague. Because of this, Kamashin could only train her for a week or two at a time and was very strict about getting as much done as possible. A day off from training was unheard of.

“I would recommend that you get cleaned up first; you still have a bit of soot, well, everywhere. After that, you should pop over to Kurenai's apartment to let her see that you're okay. I'd wager that she fainted after I left.”

Hinata was both happy and sad at this information; happy that someone cared about her and sad that she had caused her such pain. She would definitely drop by to see how she was doing, but first there was something she needed to do.

“OK, ummm...there's something I need to...check up on first.”

Kamashin waved his hand dismissively, “Sure, sure. Just be back here at sunrise tomorrow.”

Hinata nodded and quickly departed. Kamashin himself walked to the edge of the clearing and was about to leave when he turned his head in the direction Hinata was going. Doing some quick calculations, he determined that she was heading to a certain waterfall where he knew a young, blond-haired ninja was training.

“Yeah, you need to catch up on your stalking,” Kamashin teased, giving a short chuckle at her expense before continuing on. He got no more than three steps before a loud thump just to his left stopped him in his tracks. Turing his head, he saw a large rock lodged into the bark of a tree. It had missed his head by only a few inches. Has Kamashin looked closer, he saw that there was writing on the stone. It read:

It's not stalking, Sensei!

Kamashin paused for a moment before laughing loudly. He continued walking, shaking his head at the childish act of his otherwise mature student. She had very strong feelings towards the Uzumaki kid, strong enough to raise her hand to a god. That would either give her great strength or get her killed one day.

Kamashin stopped and looked back at the tree with Hinata's stone message/projectile. A though crossed his mind, the same thought that sprang up every time Hinata did this. 

“I never taught her that, so how the bloody hell does she do it?”

***********************************************************************************

The early morning sun shone down upon the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Despite the fierce protest of his body, Naruto woke up early to continue his Summoning training with Jiraiya. He hadn't been able to get more than a tadpole, but he was sure that today was the day that he summoned a giant toad.

As Naruto left the village gates and headed into the forest, he decide to try a shortcut to reach the waterfall that Jiraiya always wanted to train at. He didn't know why it had to be that exact waterfall everyday. The Pervy Sage could never concentrate on training him with all the young women who always seemed to be swimming there. Unknowingly, Naruto just answered his own question.

He also could have sworn that someone was watching him from the tree yesterday. He didn't see anything, but he could feel eyes on him. Just before he went home for the day, he looked around the forest and found what looked to be ash or soot on one of the trees.

Naruto shook his head. It was probably nothing. Besides, he had to concentrate on training. He needed a killer jutsu if he wanted to beat Sasuke in their match.

Naruto walked for over 20 minutes, daydreaming about crushing Sasuke under a giant toad and sweeping Sakura off her feet. After mentally doing his victory dance for the eighth time, he took stock of his surroundings and realized that he was completely lost. It seemed quite silly for a Leaf ninja to get lost in the forest surrounding the village, but Naruto had never been outside the village walls before becoming a Genin and therefore didn’t know his way around the forest. In hindsight, it wasn't very smart to try a shortcut when you don't know the area very well, but Naruto was a ninja of action, not hard thinking.

Just as he was devising a plan to get out of this situation, he heard a noise a little ways off in the distance. He started to move towards it, picking out the sound of metal clanging. He picked up speed when he heard a small explosion.

Finally, Naruto emerged at the edge of fairly large clearing, or at least it was supposed to be a clearing. It looked more like a battlefield, with small craters and fallen trees everywhere. In the centre of all this destruction were two people.

One was a young girl with black hair and pale skin, wearing dark pants and a shirt with mesh underneath. It actually took him a minute, and seeing those telling pale eyes, for him to realize it was his former classmate, Hinata. He didn't recognize her without her trademark jacket on.

She was locked in combat with a tall man wearing a black trench coat. Naruto didn't get a good look at him because something in his head snapped. Seeing Hinata in danger made his blood boil for some reason. It was strange because they really weren't friends, though she was probably the only one that was nice to him in the Academy. Before he really knew what was happening, Naruto found himself charging into the combat.

“Hey, asshole!” Naruto shouted, causing the two combatants to halt their fighting and turn in his direction. Naruto jumped into the air and put his hand into a cross seal.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu.” A large puff of smoke heralded the creation of four shadow clones. The five Narutos seemed to hang in the air for a second, before launching themselves towards the tall man.

The strange man's golden eyes flashed more in annoyance than surprise and he literally swatted the clones away. He grabbed the real Naruto's arm and threw him around the field. Naruto was able to land on his feet and he looked at the man with red, slitted eyes.

“Little brat,” the golden eyed man lifted his right hand as sparks of electricity began to surround it. Naruto growled as he prepared to attack once again.

“NOOOOOO!” the desperate cry rang throughout the whole forest as Hinata ran and pushed Naruto out of the way of Kamashin's attack. Unfortunately, she put a little too much into the push and sent the poor boy flying across the clearing and into a tree, leaving a very large dent. Hinata could only gasp and run towards him to make sure he was okay.

Kamashin slowly lowered his arm as he processed what had happened. His jutsu would have only given Naruto a little shock. Hinata's intervention had ironically done way more damage. A small chuckle escaped Kamashin's lips before it erupted into full-blown laughter.

“Sensei, this is no time to laugh! Help me.” Hinata was almost hysterical as she tried to wake the unconscious boy.

“Don't worry. That boy has got one really thick skull.” As if to prove his point, Naruto began to wake and look around groggily.

Hinata immediately began to apologize. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm....”

“Whoa Hinata, you're really strong,” Naruto interrupted, leaping to his feet and smiling as if nothing happened. His smile disappeared when he caught sight of Kamashin. He pulled out a kunai and was ready to attack the man who had tried to hurt Hinata when the girl in question stepped in front of him.

“Naruto, please don't. This man is my sensei, we were training,” Hinata said, almost pleading. She didn't want the two people who mattered most to her at each other's throat.

This greatly surprised Naruto. “He's your sensei?” he said, dumbfounded. A nod from Hinata confirmed this. “But I thought Kurenai-sensei was your teacher?”

“Well, I'm kinda like a part-time sensei.”

Naruto looked over at the man he had try to kill, a flash of recognition in his eyes.

“Hey, you're the guy from the Preliminaries. You just popped in out of nowhere. That was awesome!”

Kamashin was genuinely surprised that Naruto recognized him. His face was covered back then and he had swapped his cloak for, in his opinion, a more comfortable trenchcoat. It was made from the same non-reflective material as his cloak, though it was less distorting on the eyes. It was held together by two silver bars on his chest. All-in-all, it was very strange that Naruto was able to tell it was him.

“Yeah. My name is Kamashin; I am the God of Shinobi.” Kamashin did a little bow at this declaration.

“You're a god?” Naruto had the same skepticism that the Leaf Jonin had the other day. He looked over to Hinata, who gave a small but determined nod. For some reason, he trusted Hinata's word and so believed what this man said. He stared at Kamashin for a minute.

“That is soooo cool!” Naruto shouted, scaring away all the birds in a mile radius. He was jumping up and down with excitement.

“You are so lucky, Hinata. You're being trained by a God! Can he train me too? Please please please?” Naruto put his face right in front of Hinata's, eyes wide and pleading. Whatever resolve Hinata may have had quickly crumbled. She glanced over to Kamashin.

“Sensei?”

“Sorry, I'm strictly one student only.”

Naruto gave a yell of frustration. “Ah, come on. Kakashi-sensei is too busy training Sasuke and I'm getting nowhere with the Pervy Sage.”

“Wait, Pervy Sage? You mean Jiraiya?” Kamashin's golden eyes bored into Naruto quizzically.

“Yeah, that is what he said his name was, though he is a Pervy Sage.”

Kamashin closed his eyes and went into deep thought. He knew about the prophecy regarding one of Jiraiya's students. He also knew about both Naruto's burden and lineage. All of this put together made this a very interesting situation. He was normally very strict on whom he helped, especially after the 'incident' in the early years of the Ninja Villages. But he had broken that mold when he took Hinata as a full-time student. He had sensed something special about her and he had a similar feeling about Naruto.

Besides, he still owed Naruto's parents for that one time.

“Alright, boy,” Kamashin told the knucklehead, cracking his knuckles and smiling a smile that promised much pain. “I’ll teach you a few tricks.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was the last chapter I posted, back in February of 2012.

Naruto was jumping up and down with joy that he finally had someone who would train him seriously. Hinata, on the other hand, was very confused. She didn't expect Kamashin to cave in that quickly, or even at all. He was always so serious about sticking to a strict training schedule. It was strange that he would offer to train Naruto right out of the blue like this.

“Then again, he never did explain why he chose to teach me, of all people.” Hinata looked over at her sensei, wondering just what was going on in his head. She quickly gave up on that impossible task and decided to wait and see what Kamashin would do.

“Okay, Naruto, get into a fighting stance and let's see what you got,” Kamashin instructed, not bothering to get into a stance himself. 

Naruto began to slide into the basic Academy stance when he stopped with a strange look on his face and put a hand on his stomach.

“What's wrong Naruto?” a concerned Hinata asked.

“I don't know, my stomach hurts for some reason.” Naruto tilted his head and crossed his arms in a thinking posture. “Can't be my breakfast, I had the same 15 bowls of ramen that I've always had.” 

Kamashin walked towards Naruto with a small, knowing smile on his face and knelt in front of him. The scale difference between the two was quite striking, with Naruto still not eye level with the tall deity.

Kamashin lightly poked the very centre of Naruto's stomach. “The pain's coming from right around here?”

“Yeah...” said Naruto, more than a little nervous.

Kamashin held up two fingers, which began to glow blue with chakra. “Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit.” And without waiting for a reply or consent, Kamashin jabbed his fingers into Naruto's gut.

 

Inside Naruto's mind scape, the Nine-Tailed Fox was bashing away at the metal bars that formed its prison. Sparks flew as the seal attempted to hold the demon back. The pain that was coursing through the fox was more than any human could ever know, but it didn't care. There was only one thing on its mind.

And that was to rip that insolent 'God' apart, even if it killed him and his host.

The fox demon stopped its violent thrashing when it noticed a blue light coming towards the cage. The fox had no time to react as the light changed into a fist, phasing through the bars and smashing into its head.

The dazed demon lord could do nothing as it was grabbed by the throat and throttled by the chakra hand. The fox's head was forced to collide with the bars of the cage several times before the hand let go. As the most powerful demon on earth tried to regain its focus, the hand transformed into a blue, scowling face. Two golden orbs served at its eyes and within them was a look of great annoyance.

“Hey Foxy, quit your belly-aching. You're starting to piss me off and you know what happened last time you crossed me.” The light from the orbs seemed to darken as the threat was given.

Pure fury raged within the Nine-Tailed Fox's crimson eyes as it gazed at the apparition of the being that had caused it such humiliation. Never had the fox wanted to be released from its vessel more than right then. With all of its power unleashed, it would prove once and for all that the outcome of their last match had been nothing more than a fluke.

The Nine-Tails lowered its head as it got back onto its feet, anger subsiding but not dissipating. The Fox was not free nor did it have access to its full demonic power. It had to face the realization that it was at the mercy of this god.

The chakra face noticed this and took on a more joyful expression.

“Good boy. Now, listen to your elders and run along now.”

The Fox gave a deep growl, but did nothing except stalk back into the dark recesses of the cage. For now, there was nothing the demon could do except sulk in the darkness and plan its distant revenge. 

The chakra apparition gave the fox one last look to see that it had calmed down (as much as a hate-filled demon could) and slowly retreated back to its source.

 

Naruto stumbled backwards, his hands grasping his stomach. He gave Kamashin a hard glare as the sharp pain coursed through him.

Kamashin himself simply stood up with a small grin on his face. Less than a second had passed within the real world. He always did like putting someone in their place without wasting any time.

“Now, doesn’t that feel much better?” Kamashin asked, his smile never wavering. 

Naruto was about to give a very loud retort, when he noticed that he did indeed feel better. The pain in his stomach was completely gone and he even felt a bit refreshed.

“Yeah I do, thanks Kamashin-sensei!” Naruto's trademark smile was soon replaced by a thoughtful look. “The Pervy Sage did something similar to help me learn the walking-on-water technique.”

“Well, all great ninja masters have a few tricks that they keep up their sleeves.” Kamashin had a smug look on his face as he peered at his gloved fingernails.

“Really?! You got to teach me some of those!” Naruto was once again bouncing up and down, stomach pain long forgotten.

“I will, if you would be so kind as to assume a fighting stance,” said Kamashin in a patience tone.

Naruto nodded vigorously and, quite sloppily, took his position. 

Kamashin closed his eyes. “Okay. The most important skill of a ninja is....” Kamashin was cut off as a fist came flying towards his head. With his eyes still closed, Kamashin tilted his head slightly to avoid the blow. He grabbed the out-stretched arm and slammed the blond Genin into the ground.

Kamashin opened his eyes and looked down at the boy with a sigh. “Patience is the greatest virtue in battle. By waiting and watching, you can gain the edge that secures your victory.”

Naruto could only grunt as he tried vainly to get out of Kamashin's grip. After a few seconds, the vice weaken enough for the blond ninja to scurry away and prepare for another attack.

Kamashin once again closed his eyes and began to speak, but was interrupted as Naruto again charged towards the ninja deity. His 'plan' ended in abject failure as his face became closely acquainted with the metal plate on the bottom of Kamashin's right boot.

The man who could bring the ninja world to its knees gave another exasperated sigh before pushing Naruto backwards. This would take awhile.

Hinata had taken a seat on one of the fallen trees that ringed the makeshift training field. She winced each time that Naruto got hit and was knocked down. She knew she shouldn't be overly worried; Kamashin was fighting at around the same level as Naruto, so the chances of serious injury were slim. Still, she couldn't help but feel each blow the boy of her affections took.

Perhaps it was from all the time spent with Kamashin, but Hinata found that in times of stress, part of her mind would just focus on something else entirely. This was originally a defence mechanism against the worst of her father's scoldings. Right now, it was to keep Hinata from intervening in the painfully one-sided fight.

The little part of her mind wandered over to the events that transpired after she 'checked up' on Naruto yesterday. She first went to Kurenai's apartment to see her official sensei. The distraught women had wrapped Hinata in a bone-crushing hug upon seeing her and than promptly fainted. 

Hinata couldn't blame her at all. Even her head began to spin when she thought about all that had happened to her. After getting her sensei settled in her bed and leaving a note promising to come back tomorrow evening, Hinata set off to her second destination of the day.

(Flashback)

Neji Hyuga gritted his teeth as another wave of pain shot through his body despite laying still in his hospital bed. 

Konoha's Medical Corps had grown woefully lax since the departure of the Sannin, Tsunade. With no major conflict ongoing, there wasn't an urgent need to patch up ninja and get them back into the field as quickly as possible, especially a low-ranked Genin. As it was, the hospital staff mostly just bandaged the wounds and let time do the rest.

This was of no comfort for the injured Hyuga. A week in hospital had done little to heal his many fractured and broken bones along with the chakra burns on his stomach. The pain never went completely away, even when he was asleep.

The physical pain was nothing but a small annoyance compared to the sheer humiliation Neji felt. He was the prodigy, the one that would help the Branch family in finally eclipsing the Main family and free them from their enslavement

Instead, he was completely and utterly defeated. And not just by an ordinary Genin, but by the girl considered to be the weakest and most pathetic Hyuga ever born. Neji was sure he would die of shame before he died of his injuries.

Another shot of pain brought his focus back to said injuries and Neji once again cursed them. He hated feeling powerless. He felt that way when the Caged Bird Seal was put on him and when his father died.

Neji closed his eyes and clenched his fists, letting out a grunt of both pain and frustration. He didn't want to be so weak and useless.

“It hurts, doesn’t it.”

Neji's eyes shot open at the soft voice and looked towards the window. There, leaning against the wall, was the girl that was the cause of his current predicament. Giving a snarl that was laced with pure hatred, Neji attempted to lunge at Hinata, but could only sit partway up before the pain forced him down again.

Hinata slowly walked over to her seriously injured cousin, a neutral expression on her face. When Neji was able to open his eyes again, he saw Hinata looking down at him. This gesture alone infuriated him even more, despite the fact that her look and posture would be considered perfect by Hyuga standards.

Neji tried to raise his arms, as if to choke her, but they only got halfway there before they refused to rise any higher and fell back to his side uselessly.

Hinata gave a half-smile.

“How does it feel?” Hinata asked in a cold tone. “To be weak? To be helpless? To be at someone else's mercy?” Upon finishing her speech, Hinata slowly and gently wrapped her fingers around Neji's neck.

Neji's eyes widened as he finally realized the situation he was in. Here he was, paralysed with pain before the girl he had verbally tortured for years. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead as Neji began to breathe very rapidly

Hinata's smile widened a fraction as she saw the fear showing plainly in her cousin's eyes. She slowly moved her hand from his neck to his bandaged stomach. 

Neji was confused for a moment before flinching as he felt chakra pouring from Hinata's hand. It took several seconds before he realized that his insides weren't being turned to mush by a Gentle Fist strike; in fact, the pain was starting to recede. Looking down, he saw that, instead of a sharp blue, a soft green chakra was surrounding Hinata's hand.

Hinata was far from being skilled enough to be called a medical ninja, Kamashin focused her training on combat and only taught her enough medical ninjutsu to patch herself up. Her ability to heal Neji's wounds came not from books, but from experience. She had suffered similar injuries many times during training. 

It was lucky for him that she had released the Rasengan so quickly, or else Neji wouldn't have had any internal organs left. She decided to keep this little bit of information to herself. It wouldn't do his pride any good. 

After several minutes, Neji was healed enough so he could sit up. He stared intensely at the girl he once thought he could read like a book but was unreadable now. The smile was still on her face, albeit now it seemed more sad than vengeful.

“Why?” It was a simple question, but Neji assumed it had a more complex answer. It made no sense for her to help him, after all that he had done to her.

Hinata gave a short laugh that lacked any humour before giving her answer.

“Because we're family.”

The confusion on Neji's face to this statement made Hinata sigh as she elaborated.

“You blame the Main House, and by extension me, for the death of your father. You think that he was sent out to die.”

“He was! He was sacrificed to preserve the Main House!” The pain began to seep into his voice, but Neji didn't care. He wanted to say this, here and now.

The sad look on Hinata's face deepened. “Yes, he was sacrificed to save the clan, but what was the alternative?” The question took Neji off-guard. After thinking about it for the few moments, he turned his head to the side, not wanting to acknowledge the answer.

Hinata answered for him. “If the Byakugan fell into anyone else's hands, it would be the end of the Hyuga clan. If your father hadn't taken my father's place, you and everyone in the clan could have been killed later on, not to mention the danger to the village. He died to save us all.”

Neji clenched his fists as he desperately tried to hold back his tears. It was the anger and hatred of the Main House that had kept him going all these years, fuelling his training efforts. If he didn't have that, what was he supposed to do?

“Maybe you should read this.”

Neji looked up and saw Hinata holding up a large scroll. He had to wonder exactly where she pulled it from.

“I swiped it from my father's study.” Hinata had an almost sheepish look on her face at this revelation. That alone made Neji curious enough to stretch out his stiff arms and grab the scroll.

Opening it up, Neji was shocked to see that it was written in his father's handwriting and was addressed to him. From it, he learned that what Hinata said was true and that it really was his father's choice. He, at the very end, had taken control of his destiny.

Several tears fell on the paper as Neji cried long and hard for the first time since his father's death. He didn't know how much time had passed, but when he finally looked up, Hinata was gone. Neji looked out the open window as a bright afternoon sun shone over the village.

“Thank you...Lady Hinata.” 

(End Flashback)

Hinata had to smile as now, finally, the wounds in her family could begin to heal. That smile disappeared as Naruto once again fell to the ground hard. Hinata stood up and began to move forward but was stopped by a glace from Kamashin.

This was Naruto's trial.

The battered blond once again got to his feet, coughing up some blood on the way. Kamashin was pulling his punches, but it still hurt like hell.

Naruto desperately wracked his brain for a solution. He had to beat Kamashin if he wanted to prove he could be Hokage one day. He couldn't fail, now or ever. 

As he focused as hard as he could, something tugged at his mind, something Kamashin said. What was it? Something to do with patience? Naruto was not one to wait patiently, but he was in tough straits. 

“Alright, I guess I can give it a shot.” Naruto once again got into his fighting stance, but this time didn't attack.

Kamashin was mildly surprised at this sudden change but gave no outward expression. Time ticked by as neither combatant moved at all. The silence was broken only by the light rustling of the trees in the wind.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, Kamashin dashed forward and threw a punch that was, for him, quite sloppy. Naruto still barely had time to dodge to the side and throw his own punch. Kamashin blocked it with his arm and attempted to kick him in the head. 

Naruto ducked under it and tried for an uppercut. Kamashin took a step back to avoid it and drew his right arm back. Naruto saw it coming and crossed his arms in front of him. He was sent flying in the air once again, but this time, he was able to land on his feet.

Naruto was about to charge again when Kamashin held up his hand, signalling him to stop.

“Very good, Naruto, you pass this little test.”

A big smile broke out on Naruto face, both for his success and for the congratulations, two things he rarely got. Hinata was also smiling brightly, ecstatic that her crush had passed Kamashin's test, something she knew was not easy.

“Now, what did you learn?” asked Kamashin.

The smile disappeared as Naruto tried, and failed, to come up with an answer. Seeing his difficulty, Kamashin decided to explain.

“You learned patience, to not charge in blindly and expect to beat your opponent in one blow. Every time you threw the first punch, you landed on your ass. When you waited for me to attack first, you dodged and counterattacked. This is the most important aspect of being a ninja: waiting for the perfect time to strike.” 

Naruto was uncharacteristically quiet as he processed the information. It seemed to make sense, and the recent fight appeared to prove it. Sitting and waiting wasn't in his nature nor his fighting style, but he would keep it in mind.

Kamashin gave a short chuckle as he observed Naruto slowly absorb what he had just said. He certainly wasn't the keenest mind the god had encountered in his many years, not by a long shot. But the kid possessed an almost indomitable will, and that was quite a rarity. 

“Keep training and you'll get stronger. Just don't forget to use your head sometimes.”

Naruto nodded and was about to thank him, but the word training made him remember something.

“Oh crap! I forgot I have to meet up with the Pervy Sage.” Naruto immediately took off running out of the clearing, calling out behind him. “Thanks again, Kamashin-sensei! Bye, Hinata!”

Hinata's eyes followed Naruto's retreating figure, a big smile still on her face.

“Happy that the boy you have a crush on isn't a complete idiot?” Kamashin said, amused, as he walked up beside her.

“No.” Hinata gave Kamashin a brief glance before looking out at the trees again.

“Whatever.” Kamashin suppressed his chuckles as he walked back to the middle of the clearing.

Hinata continued to stare off into the distance, happier than her smile showed. She was so happy for Naruto. If Kamashin thought he had talent then maybe, just maybe, he could achieve his dreams.

“And I'll do whatever I can to help him.” Hinata had given that vow more than once, but it seemed to matter now more than ever.

Hinata was shaken from her blissful thoughts as a bolt of lighting shot out at her from behind. She sensed it just in time and was able to back flip over it. She gave Kamashin a very annoyed look when she landed.

“What? You gonna just stand there all day?” Kamashin cracked his knuckles and formed lighting around his right hand, beckoning Hinata with his left.

Hinata shook her head before running at Kamashin, hand signs flying as her training resumed once again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't Naruto.**

**Apologies in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes I may have made, I was rushing to finally get this chapter done.**

Chapter 6

 

The Third Hokage leaned back in his chair, slowly smoking his pipe. A mountain of paperwork sat on his desk, most of it unfinished. He knew that he should concentrate on his work, it was important no matter how much he hated it, but he simply couldn't focus on it right now.

As the leader of one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, he had naturally dealt with many strange and difficult problems before, but the current situation far surpassed any he had encountered in his long years. The First and Second Hokage had trained him to be a strong ninja and how to be a wise, capable leader. But they never mentioned what he was supposed to do when a God was running amok in the village.

Sarutobi let out a long puff of smoke. In truth, the situation was not as bad as it could have been. Nobody had been killed or injured by Kamashin as of yet, and he hadn't made an appearance in three days. With any luck, he would stay quiet until the at least the end of the Exams.

A long sigh that contained a few wisps of smoke escaped the aged ninja. The chances of that seemed slim. He may not have known much about the man, but it seemed like trouble and excitement followed people like him around all the time. He was similar to Naruto in that respect.

Sarutobi leaned back and closed his eyes, placing his hand to his temple, as if trying to draw out the memory form his old, tired mind. What he could remember was fragmented and hazy, but it was enough.

_Flashback_

 A young boy, only around 6 or 7 years of age, was practising his throwing technique on a wooden post in one of the training ground within a village that was almost as young as he was. The Leaf Village's vaunted academy had not yet been founded, so the training of young ninja was far more informal, largely restricted to clan teaching.

The young Hiruzen would have normally have been training in the Sarutobi clan compound, but after overhearing his father complaining that he was lagging behind, had decided to train away from prying eyes. This private training wasn't making much improvement, as less than half of the thrown shuriken and kunai had hit the target and none at all on the bulls-eye.

As he went to the training post and began to remove the embedded projectiles, the frustration that had been building up for the last several weeks burst out as the boy couldn't stop his fists from hitting the wooden post over and over again. Blood was dripping from his knuckles onto the ground by the time he could force himself to stop.

He sat down on the ground for several minutes, failing to stop the tears from forming in his eyes.

Why couldn't he get stronger? He was training as hard as he could. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to prove that he was strong enough to lead the clan, to gain his family's recognition and respect. If he could have those, they what was the point of being a ninja?

It took a few more minute for the tears to stop, but Hiruzen was eventually able to put on a brave face. It was getting late and he had to get home soon or else he would get scolded again. With a final look at the training post, he pocketed his weapons and turned around to begin the trip home.

He only got a few steps before something caught his attention. As the young boy was still despondent, he had been keeping his eyes down, looking at the ground. It was there that he noticed a pair of black boots standing in his way to the Village. Looking up, he saw those boots were attached to a man, clad in a pitch-black cloak. A pair of golden orbs was all that pieced the darkness encased in the hood of the cloak.

Those golden eyes looked at the boy and Hiruzen felt utter fear and insignificance before the man. It was like he was only an ant before this man in black and that if he took any action, he would be squashed effortlessly.

The hooded head turned and that soul-piercing gaze left Hiruzen, allowing him to breathe again. This moment of respite was short-lived as young ninja realized where the stranger was now looking.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konoha, was just beyond the training fields, large parts of it still under-construction. It was a truly monumental sign and a great symbol. While far from being the largest city in the world, the Village still housed an unprecedented number of ninja. Before, such a large group of shinobi could only be found on the battlefield; but here, they could live side-by-side peacefully. The size of the First Hokage's vision and accomplishment was clear even to one as young as Hiruzen. A full-fledged ninja village truly marked the beginning of a new era.

Although his face was hidden and his eyes little more than bright sphere of light, Hiruzen could tell that the man didn't hold the same level of wonder and awe towards the Leaf Village. Indeed, the feeling that the ninja-in-training was getting was more along of the lines of dislike, perhaps even hatred. At the very least this man was no Leaf ninja, and that meant he must have infiltrated the village for some purpose.

Fear filled Hiruzen again, but this time not for himself. His family and his friends were down there in the village. Everyone who mattered to him was there, alongside many other innocent people. He couldn't, he wouldn't, just stand there and let this stranger be a threat to them.

No matter the cost, he had to protect those dear to him.

Hiruzen still had a kunai in his hand from his earlier and he brought it up before him. It was a sloppy stance, with this kunai positioned so it was neither effective for defence nor offensive. His father would have scolded him fiercely for this, shouting that he had been taught better. Hiruzen had known better and should have held his weapon in a better grip, but perfect form was not the first thing on is mind.

Just getting a weapon in up and doing anything to stop this man before he hurt his village was all her was thinking about.

The man noticed the young boy’s hostile movements, but did nothing more then turn his head back towards him. Those golden eyes bore into the child ninja, seeming to peer into his soul.

Hiruzen took only one second to think, one second to reconsider his options. If he attacked this man, he would surely die. But there was no way he could live with himself if he just did nothing. He squared his shoulders, planted his feet firmly on the ground and threw his kunai with as much force as he could muster.

The force of the throw threw Hiruzen off balance, despite him grounding himself. He went down to his knees and closed his eyes, waiting for the stranger to attack and end his life. Several minutes passed before Hiruzen lifted his head and opened his eyes.

The man was still standing there, having not moved an inch. What had moved was his hand; held in front of his face and caught between two of his fingers was the kunai. If he hadn’t caught it, it would have stuck him right between the eyes.

It was the best throw Hiruzen had even done.

The stranger flipped the kunai into the air and caught it easily in her hand. He looked at it briefly before looking at the fallen child.

“Looks like you can hit a bullseye, Monkey-boy”

Hiruzen was shocked by the man voice, not by the strange echoing quality to it, but that it lacked any kind of anger or desire to kill. He almost sounded proud.

The stranger in black walked slowly towards the kneeing boy. Hiruzen was still too shock by all that was happening to move. He just silently watched as the man approached him. When he was standing just in from of him, the man flipped the kunai around and held the handle towards Hiruzen, offering it to him.

“Training and fighting for yourself won’t do you a lot of good. Fighting for the sake of others, for something greater then you, can help you reach greater heights”. A bright smile become visible under the mask of darkness and the golden eyes no longer held any animosity of any kind.

Hiruzen didn’t know what to do or how to reply. This was something he had never been trained for and he was utterly unprepared. But the man words struck a chord with him. Maybe there was something to them…

“Hiruzen!” the shout brought the young Sarutobi out of his thinking and he looked over to see who it was that was calling for him. It was someone he knew, someone important, but everything was going hazy now. He couldn’t make out any coherent shapes as the clear parts of this memory ended and were replaced by those still shrouded in the mists of time and old age.

_End Flashback_

Sarutobi let out a sign of frustration. He couldn’t remember anything beyond that point with clarity. It was clear that he had met Kamashin when he was a boy, but he was sure that there was far more to it than that. He could just feel it, that there was something important hidden just out of his reach. Something that had to do with the Village’s early years.

Sarutobi smoked on his pipe for several minutes, mulling his options over. He then summoned one of his ANBU and gave them an order for the Intelligence Division. They were to focus their research on the founding and early days of the Village, but should specifically focus on what wasn’t there. The key to the missing piece of this mystery may be to find out what was missing in the first place.

With someone like Kamashin, Sarutobi figured that an out-of-the-box approach would be the best. He only hoped he could find the answer before it was too late, and that those answer would not do more harm the good.

 

* * *

 

He had a bad feeling that while important, whatever had happened all those decades ago had been forgotten for a reason.   

The early morning in was a peaceful and serene time, perfect for quiet reflection. Such notions were not on the mind of one young ninja, as he ran through the forest in an orange blur. He was usually not this active or excited so early in the day, but how could he not be. He was finally getting some real training from a veteran ninja; no weird or unclear test or methods, just straight-forward training.

He had been all kinds of mad when he had gone to the spot by the waterfall and found a note for the Pervy-Sage. He said that he would be too busy with his ‘research’ for the next few weeks and he would have to train on his own.

First Kaskshi-sensei bailed on him in favor of Sasuke, then Closet-Pervert got knocked out and now the Prevy-Sage had straight up abandoned him. Three teachers in under a week and the second half of the Exam were just around the corner. Not that he doubted his super awesome ninja skills wouldn’t help him beat the snot out of Sasuke, but he still wanted to be prepared for anything.

So far, all he could do was walk on water and summon a little tadpole. Three teachers and not one had taught a killer jutsu. He had screamed for several minutes about the uselessness of perverted sensei and was about to storm of in an attempted to find his wayward teacher when Kamashin suddenly appeared right next to him.

The surprise of seeing the tall man right there had sent Naruto falling to the ground, landing un-ninja like onto his butt. While he was getting up, Kamashin had asked what was getting him so worked up. Naruto explained his situation and to his delight the so-called God of Shinobi had offered to teach him again. It would only be until he Pervy-Sage could be found, but Naruto was happy either way.

He felt that he had learned more in that one session with Kamashin then with any of his other teachers.

Plus spending time with Hinata was always fun. She was a bit weird, with her face always going red, but he honestly enjoyed spending time with her.

Kamashin told him to meet with him and Hinata the next day at the same clearing as before. Naruto eagerly agreed and spent the rest of that day with his own training, consisting mainly of fighting his Shadow Clones and summoning more tadpoles. He wasn’t discouraged by this lack of progress, as he just knew that tomorrow he would finally get some real training done.

So Naruto, very out of character, went to bed very early and got up at the crack of dawn. He got his morning ramen and was out the door, barely able to contain his excitement.

What would he learn today? Spitting fireballs from his mouth? Splitting the earth in two? Or maybe shooting lighting from his eyes?

 Naruto had never been this eager for a day of learning.

He reached the clearing in record time and was surprised to find Hinata already there. He had really expected to be their first, given how early he had gotten up, but it didn’t matter much. He waved to Hinata and started walking up to her.

“Hey! Hinata! Good Morning. Where’s Kamashin-sensei? I want to get started on training!” Naruto gave his greeting and question in her usual way, by shouting it as loud as he could. He saw Hinata practically jump out of her skin in surprise. Wasn’t her speciality being able to see everything at once or something? Maybe she was focusing on some super-secret technique of something. Maybe he could convince her to show him how to do it, that would be so cool and…

Naruto’s thoughts were cut off as he suddenly found himself being thrown into the air. He spun around widely, trying in vain to find his balance. He was unable to find it before his face was acquainted with the ground.

Naruto rolled around on the ground, clenching his face in pain. What the hell just happened?

His question was answered as he saw a pair of black boots, ones that were attached a certain God that was responsible for Naruto trip into the air.

Kamashin looked down at Naruto and gave him a crooked grin.

“You got to be on guard more if you want to stay alive. Even in friendly territory, if you don’t watch your back, your ninja career could be very short” Kamashin ignored the glare from both Naruto and Hinata, who had rushed up to help the fallen boy. He causally walked towards a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing.

The pain in his face faded quickly and Naruto was back onto his face, running after Kamashin and asking a hundred questions about what he was going to learn today.

“So you want to learn a super-powerful jutsu that will defeat you opponent in an instant?” Kamashin barked a laugh as he sat down on the tree, “You’ll need to get good with the basics first” the God of Shinobi said as he began to take off his trench-coat.

Naruto began a loud retort, saying that he knew all the boring basic stuff and wanted something better. He cut himself off as Kamashin placed the trench-coat beside him on the tree. This left the God in his sleeveless black shirt, exposing his arms. Each limb was visible powerful, with thick cords of muscle baring witness to intense training. But what caused Naruto to pause were all the scars.

There were hundreds of small, white lines covering each arm. There seemed to be more scar-tissue then normal skin. Naruto had seen many veteran ninja from around the village display prominent scars, but never saw so many on one person before.

Kamashin noticed Naruto’s staring and gave a rueful smile.

“If you don’t want to get all sliced and diced like this, I recommend you get a firm grasp of the basics” Kamashin gave a sharp glare, “If not, then I’m not wasting my time with you.”

Naruto simply nodded, not able to take his eyes away from the scars.

“How…” Naruto simply gestured to Kamashin’s arms.

Kamashin opened his mouth to reply before closing it. He seemed to think for a moment before giving his answer.

“Here’s a special piece of advice; never go charging in an army of crazy fanatical samurai all by yourself.  It will end badly.” Kamashin said this will no emotion, simply looking Naruto in the eye. The young ninja didn’t know how to respond to something like that and simply gave another nod.

He missed out on the sharp, inquisitive look that Hinata gave at her sensei.

Kamashin’s jovial mood returned as he gave both children a smile.

“Excellent. First of all, I want you to spar with Hinata. She got plenty that she can teach you herself.” Kamashin gave these instructions as he got himself comfortable on the log, intending to take it easy for the time being. “After that, maybe we’ll move on to some jutsu”.

Naruto chose not to argue against this, still a bit stunned and thankful for any kind of training. He turned around and began walking to the centre of the clearing with Hinata.

“Stop”

Naruto turned around and saw Kamashin had his hand extended, palm up.

“Your headband; you’ll need to take it off before we train. No exceptions.” Kamashin’s voice and look were very stern and it was clear it wasn’t going to take not for answer.

Naruto was understandably reluctant to part with his treasured headband. It was a gift from Iruka-sensei, visible proof that he was a real ninja and not just a child playing at it. It was a symbol of all that he wanted to be, what he would become no matter the obstacles set before him. It wasn’t something that he could just give up.

Hinata noticed Naruto hesitation and intervened before a fight broke out.

“Naruto, you headband could get damaged while we train. It would be best to take it off for now, so you don’t have to worry about it” she smiled at Naruto, hoping her reasoning would mollify him.

Naruto thought about that, nodding as he saw her point. He had noticed that, along with her trademark jacket, Hinata didn’t have her headband around her neck like she usually did. Looking around, he saw that it and her jacket were neatly placed on the end of the log that Kamashin was sitting on. He figured that it was just something that they did and it did make some sense.

With only some slight hesitation, Naruto untied his headband and handed to Kamashin. The God of Shinobi gave the item a very peculiar look, something that Naruto couldn’t place, before placing it safely beside him.

 Naruto and Hinata walked to the centre of the clearing and got into a fighting stance. Naruto’s was more of a poor imitation of the Academy’s basic stance. His feet were poorly placed and his fist held out in front of him that would both easily telegraph his attack and left little room for defense. Hinata simply stood sideways with one palm at her side and the other outstretched towards Naruto.

Naruto did remember his previous lesson and waited a full minute before attacking. His patients had its limits and Hinata wasn’t making any aggressive moves of her own. As he charged forward, Naruto started to worry that he might accidentally hurt her. He knew she was strong, her match against Neji and her pushing him into the tree proved it, but he really didn’t like the thought of causing her pain. She had always been such a quiet and shy girl and it was difficult to not see her as fragile. Naruto decided that he would pull his punches just a little bit.

That decision last about 3 seconds, when Naruto’s face was again reunited with the ground.

He shook off the pain and waved away Hinata’s concerns about stopping. He got up and went into another bout, doing everything he could do to land a hit. Nothing work; all his punches and kicks never hit. Hinata wasn’t even really fighting back, just deflecting all his blows and constantly making him lose his balance. Even summoning Shadow Clones didn’t help, as she effortlessly deflected and redirected all incoming attacking, causing the clones to collide into each other.

After an hour of this, Naruto collapsed to the ground, breathing hard and sweating profusely. He was getting his ass handed to him by Hinata, who wasn’t even winded. Strangely, he didn’t feel any kind of anger or resentment towards Hinata, like he would have if it were Sasuke beating him down.

 Instead he felt anger and frustration at himself, for not being able to do better. He looked up when he saw Hinata offering her hand to help him up, a small smile on her face. Naruto didn’t hesitate to accept it and quickly got back to his feet.

“Wow Hinata. You’re really, really strong. How did you do all that? You’re not even a little tired from this are you?” Naruto smiled at the girl as he asked this, causing her to blush. That blush deepened as she realised that he was still holding her hand.

Hinata quickly removed her hand from Naruto’s grasp, taking several deep breathes to calm her rapidly beating heart. Naruto chalked this up to her simply being her usual weird self.

“W-well, I wasn’t doing anything fancy, Naruto. I was just deflecting you attacks. That uses less energy than blocking and it’s a good way to tire your opponent out” Hinata was saying this simply to fill the void with conversation and give her a chance to hide her embarrassment. This was first-year level knowledge and Naruto probably knew this already. She hoped she wasn’t insulting him or anything.

To her surprise, Naruto was listening with rapt attention and nodding at her explanation. It was like this was the first time he was hearing this information, information that was crucial for any ninja.

What had the Academy done when he was attending? What had his Jonin-sensei been doing? Did nobody care to teach this boy anything that would keep him alive?

Hinata knew the answer to that and it was that over anything else that made the gentle girl’s blood boil.

“Hey Hinata, do you think you could teach me this deflecting-thingy? It sounds super useful” Naruto’s request pulled Hinata back to the present. She took a second to compose herself before answering.

“S-sure…It’s no problem. It’s all really simply anyway. You just need the right posture…”

Hinata proceed to explain the basic of how to deflect an opponent’s physical attacks. For some reason, Naruto was able to follow and understand what she was telling him with no problem. With other teachers, it always took a while for things to stick, if they ever did. But Hinata was able to explain it in a way he could understand.

It was really simply anyway. Slap you opponents hand away before it hit you to avoid getting hurt, knocking them off balance and set them up for a counterattack. You needed to be paying attention to see where the attack was coming from. Ideally, you’d want to dodge the attack completely, but if you couldn’t you should try and deflect it away. Blocking was a last resort, as you would still take damage.

Naruto looked back over to Kamashin, who was sitting leisurely on the log. The scars on his arms were still visible from this distance. He could only imagine how much it had hurt when it got them. Naruto was no stranger to pain, but had been lucky to have never been too seriously injured before, not even during the mission to the Land of Waves.

Naruto returned his attention to Hinata’s lesson with renew vigor. Learning to avoid getting hurt like that seemed like a really good idea.

Hinata had noticed Naruto looking at Kamashin and narrowed her eyes at her sensei as she too thought about those scars. Hinata had learned to multi-task very well and so was able to run Naruto through the techniques and stances best suited to deflection while pondering on her god of a teacher.

She had seen those scars on his arms before and knew there were more all over his body. She had naturally asked where he had gotten them, many times in fact. Each time he simply waved it away or gave a half-baked answer that was obviously false.

But this time, this remark about an army of samurai, was the most detailed he had even given on the question. Hinata was sure that he wasn’t lying about that. She couldn’t explain it and wouldn’t be able to put it into words if asked, but she just knew that Kamashin was telling the truth. Not the whole of it, but it was a lot coming from such a secretive man.

Hinata decided to worry about it later when she had the time. She needed to focus on helping Naruto.

She felt a little guilty; the specific style that she as showing Naruto was a modified version of the Hyuga’s **Gentle Fist** and she knew her father would be furious for teaching a clan outsider any of it, no matter how altered it was. Still, this small act of rebellion was exhilarating in its own way and she as destined to get an earful from her father after the Exams anyway.

Helping Naruto get stronger at the cost of making her father even angrier at her? That was a price well worth paying in Hinata’s books.

The two Genin spent the rest of the morning on this training, with Hinata showing Naruto the basics of this different style of fighting. By the time noon arrived, Naruto was beginning to get the hang of it. His movement and technique were still very sloppy and wouldn’t be much use in a fight against a competent foe, but it was still a huge improvement.

Kamashin watched the two children as they trained, unable to keep a smile from his face. In only a few hours, Hinata had helped teach a boy widely regarded as a complete idiot to grasp a fundamental aspect of combat. A few more days of training and he would have it down pat, ready to move on to the next step.

He felt that this further justified his choosing of Hinata as his apprentice. She was able to help people reach their potential in a short period of time. She had a lot more to learn before she was ready to make his place, but she was well on her way there.

This morning’s training also justified his taking over of Naruto’s training from Jiraya.

Having lived a very long time, Kamashin had managed to amass a sizable fortune spread across multiple anonymous accounts that he could access when needed. All it took was greasing a few palms and suddenly there were steep discounts on all services in red-light district. That was more than enough to get Jiraya out of the picture for the next few weeks.

Naruto would need that time for actually serious training, not learning to rely on the Nine-Tails power. He could understand Jiraya’s thinking, but firmly believed that Naruto should focus on his own skills and power instead.

He would need all of it if he was going to survive what was coming.

Kamashin called for a break and the three shared a lunch that Hinata had made. She blushed so hard at Naruto compliments towards her cooking that Kamashin was sure she would faint. The fact that she didn’t told that her self-control over her ‘secret’ crush had improved, slightly.

Naruto was back on his feet after the meal and began pestering Kamashin over his promises of teaching him an awesome new jutsu. Kamashin calmly pulled a white piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to him.

“What’s this” Naruto asked as he looked at the square piece of paper in his palm, poking it with his finger.

“It’s a special type of paper, made from a tree that was fed with chakra. It will help determine which of the elemental affinities you have.”

The look of utter confusion on Naruto face to this explanation surprised both Kamashin and Hinata. Not knowing a proper fighting stance was one thing, but elemental chakra was a very elementary subject. While it wasn’t taught at the Academy itself, that being at the discretion of clan-heads or Jonin sensei, the basics of it where explained in detail.

“Naruto…” Hinata said gently, “an elemental affinity determines which type of elemental chakra you are naturally suited to. The five elements are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightening. Your elemental affinity tells which of those types of jutsu you will have the easiest time mastering.” she gave Naruto fairly intense look, “We had several readings and assignments about this at the Academy.”

Naruto immediately lowered his eyes and scratched the back of his head nervously. 

“W-well I, um… must have forgotten about that. Didn’t seem important at the time and, um, you know I’m not really a reading guy, so…”

Kamashin and Hinata both narrowed their eyes at these words. Naruto wasn’t acting like he normally would, where he would simply brush it off. The notion of him not knowing about this, something out readings, seemed to really upset him.

“A-anyway, how do you use this paper-thingy anyway? I want to start learning some awesome jutsu right away” Naruto’s voice appeared to have the same energy and exuberance as before, but the other two could tell it was forced. Naruto really wanted the matter dropped and for them to move onto something else.

Kamashin and Hinata shared a quick look and a nod. They would deal with this later.

“Okay. It’s really simple. Just channel some of your chakra into the paper and what happens to it is based on what your affinity is” Naruto nodded at Kamashin’s instructions, obviously happy to move back to training. He channeled his chakra and the paper suddenly split in half.

“Well, that means you have a Wind affinity. That means I’ll be teaching you how to use Wind Style jutsu”

Naruto’s eyes lit up. He could just see it now; him going into the Exams and literally blowing Sasuke away with a giant tornado. Sakura would surely be willing to go out with him if he showed off enough.

“First, you’ll need to grasp the basic of using wind chakra. There’s a specific exercise that can help you”, Kamashin looked over to Hinata “you know the one, right?”

The dead-pan expression on the normally shy girl almost moved the God of Shinobi to laughter. She remembered the damned exercise, using her chakra to cut a leaf. Her affinity was Water, so trying to make her chakra grind together to cut something was fairly difficult at first. It wasn’t as bad as the Fire training, she didn’t burn herself, but it was still a frustrating and tedious exercise that took her weeks to complete.

Judging by Kamashin’s gesturing, he was expecting her to take charge of this lesson. While she wasn’t happy to repeat the exercise herself, if it was for helping Naruto, it was well worth it.

Hinata stood up and brushed herself off.

“Okay Naruto. The basis of Wind jutsu is grinding your chakra together to it can cut. The best way to practice this is using a leaf so…”

* * *

 

The sun had long set by the time Naruto had gotten back to his apartment and got ready to settle down for the night. He had just finished his dinner of instant ramen when he heard a knock on his door.

That was very strange. No one ever came to visit him, ever. He had always been alone; from as far back as he could remember. If he had ever wanted company, he went out to find it; even if those people didn’t want him around. No one ever came to him.

Naruto didn’t really know what to do, so he simply got up from the table and walked to the door, opening it.

To his surprise and confusion, it was Hinata standing in front of his door, wearing a set of casual clothes and holding a bag in front of her.

Why on Earth was Hinata visiting him at his apartment? He had just said goodbye to her a few hours ago. Was it something about his training? He felt that he was making progress, especially after Kamashin suggested he make some Shadow Clones to do the leaf cutting exercise as well. When he dispelled them hours later, he had retain their memories and found that his progress had greatly improved. He could consistently cut halfway through a leaf each time and was sure that he could cut it completely with just a little more training. Both Kamashin and Hinata had praised him for his progress and he felt a warm feeling in his chest that he only felt a few times before.

He really couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

But at the moment he had no clue why Hinata was here, or even how she knew where he lived. He never told her. This was all a new experience for him.

“Hey…Hinata. Can I…help you with anything?” he didn’t get an immediate answer to his question, the girl simply looking down with her face turning red. It looked like she was trying to say something, but words weren’t coming out. She instead thrusted the bag forward, right in front of Naruto’s face. He slowly took the bag and looked inside.

“Books and scrolls… Why are you giving me this?” Naruto looked between the bag and Hinata, hoping for an answer.

“Intellectual stimulation my dear boy”

The sudden answer from Kamashin, coming right behind him, startled Naruto so much that he instinctively leaped forward and wrapped his arms around Hinata.

“Waaah! Kamashin-sensei don’t surprise me-Hey Hinata what-” Naruto tirade was cut off as Hinata, being held by her crush, promptly fainted and dragged Naruto down to the floor.

Naruto was completely flabbergasted by this turn of events, but was able to put that aside when he noticed Hinata’s condition. Her face was bright red and it almost looked like steam was coming out of her ears. Whatever it was, it looked really serious and Naruto wasted no time in untangling himself and carrying in friend into his apartment.

This would be much easier if Kamashin wasn’t just standing off to the side, laughing his ass off.

Kamashin couldn’t stop himself, not with this riot of an act going on. He had definitely made the right call in training both of these kids; the sheer entrainment value he was getting out of it was worth all the effort.

Poor Hinata, she had been planning this little visit for a while now. She knew of the lack of knowledge Naruto had towards many important aspects of being a ninja. She had been there at the Academy, where he repeatedly failed tests and assignments and received hardly any help from the instructors. She knew the reason for it and what desperate to help at the time, but couldn’t pluck up the courage.

She had been thinking about it recently, since Naruto had passed the first part of the Exam. There was much vital information she was sure he didn’t know and he would need it to succeed as a Chunin. It was what she had been thinking of so hard that morning when Naruto had surprised her. His blanking on elemental chakra had finally convinced her to take action and visit him after training.

Kamashin had watched from afar as the girl paced for several minutes outside the apartment complex before working up the nerve to enter, only to pace again in front of his door. The whole notion of going to the home of the boy she liked at night-time was playing havoc with her nerves. With their training schedule this was the only time she could do it, but her imagination was still running wild.

Having Naruto answer the door in only a t-shirt and his boxers did not help her at all. His suddenly wrapping his arms around her in surprise, combined with Kamashin’s deliberate choice of words, was more than the girl could handle.

Naruto carried Hinata bridal style into his small living room, placing her on the couch. Kamashin noted the care and gentleness the normally brash boy used as he set Hinata down. He had more than one layer to him that was for sure. It was actually adorable watching him get Hinata comfortable, feeling her forehead while trying to figure out what to do for her. If Hinata could see this, she would probably faint all over again.

But, this visit wasn’t for fun and games. They had a job to do and Hinata needed to be fully conscious for it to happen.

Kamashin walked towards the couch, placing a reassuring hand on Naruto’s shoulder. The young boy looked up; hoping that he could help Hinata with whatever illness was affecting her. The smile that Kamashin gave him actually did calm him down. Surely there was nothing to worry about with such a knowledgeable and powerful ninja here. He could definitely help Hinata through whatever was ailing her.

Such great faith in God of Shinobi was quickly dashed as Kamashin summoned lighting to surround his hand, before striking the unconscious Hinata in the chest. A significant, though non-lethal, amount of electricity entered her body and succeeded in waking her up. She flailed around before sitting up straight and her hair stood on end. Hinata stared forward for a few seconds, before turning her head and giving the nastiest look she could at Kamashin.

The fact that her hair was all a frizzled mess made it more adorable then intimating.

“Hinata, I’m so glad you’re okay. What was wrong? Can I get you anything?”  Naruto barraged Hinata, wanting nothing more than to make sure she was okay. It was odd; they had only spent time together over the last few days, far less then what he had spent with Team 7, but he felt a strong connection with her. He liked Iurka-sensei a lot and Hokage was nice to him, but with Hinata it felt like there was something strong, something mutual there.

Was that what it felt like to have a real friend?

Hinata quickly took stock of the situation; she was inside Naruto’s apartment, she was on his couch and his face was merely inches from her own.

Instead of fainting, her body decided on the opposite course of action, springing into motion. Faster than Naruto could blink, Hinata leap off the couch and retreated to the far wall, desperately trying to fix her hair. This was so embarrassing; she had come here to help Naruto and all she had accomplished was to make a fool of out of herself. There was no way he would want her help now.

Naruto was not having such negative thoughts however. He was relieved that Hinata was okay and was willing to chalk up her actions to her just being weird.

Kamashin smiled at his apprentice’s antics, picking the fallen bag off the floor and closing the door. He could honestly watch this all night long, but they only so many hours to burn. It they wanted to make any progress, they would need to start right away. He loudly cleared his throat, getting both Hinata’s and Naruto’s attention and held up the bag of books. The girl nodded in understanding and did her best to look Naruto in the face.

“Naurto… I, well we were thinking… discussing how to, well-” Hinata was stuttering, falling over her words as she tried vainly to find a way explain her proposal without insulting Naruto. Kamashin had no such qualms and simply spun the confused boy away from the sputtering Hyuga to face him instead.

“Naruto” Kamashin spoke with a grave intensity, making Naruto pay close attention, “You…are not very smart.”

Silence reigned in the apartment as Naruto looked at Kamashin with indignation while Hinata had a look of horror on her face. Kamashin quickly moved to stop any yelling that would have been directed at him.

“But, we’re here to help fix that problem. Every evening after training, Hianta and I are going to help you get caught up on all the academic material that you’ve fallen behind on.” Kamashin reached out lightning fast and grabbed Naruto by his shirt, lifting him up to his face. “There will be no arguing or debating. This is part of your training and you will put everything you have into it. No wiggling out of it.” Kamashin gave the boy on last hard look before moving towards the kitchen table, Naruto still in hand, and set him down on one of the chairs.

Naruto looked to Hinata for help, but she only gave him a sheepish look as she took a seat next to him. There was no help coming from her. His dread mounted as a large book was placed on the table before, Kamashin opening it to his first page.

“Now, we’re going to start simple; just read these first few pages” Kamashin leaned forwards and placed his finger on the first word, tapping it a few times for emphasis. Naruto grumbled a bit before looking at the words, eyes narrowing in focus.

Kamashin watched closely as Naruto read the passage, noting how his face scrunched in concentration. The God could tell that Naruto was struggling to comprehend the written word, but it wasn’t for what the information being conveyed; he was trying to comprehend each individual word.

Kamashin let out a sigh; he had feared this, but had honestly hoped that the situation wasn’t this bad. He tapped Naruto on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Naruto…can you read this?” the boy nervously muttered a garbled half-answer. He obviously was not going to tell the truth, so Kamashin would have to be as blunt as possible.

“Naruto…can you read?”

Naruto immediately slammed his fist down and stood up, looking at Kamashin with absolute anger in his eyes. He was visibly shaking, almost like he was just an inch from punching Kamashin. He was completely furious and that was more than enough of an answer for Kamashin and Hinata.

A gasp caused Naruto to turn his head. He saw Hinata had her hand to her mouth, her pale eyes wide. Naruto glanced back and forth between his two guests, the two people who now knew.

He fell back into his seat, covering his face with his hands as sobs began to rake his body. He had tried so hard to keep this a secret; he got made fun of enough as it was. He couldn’t stop people from knowing about the Nine-Tailed Fox within him, but at least he could prevent people from learning of his illiteracy. It was such a shameful thing and unlike the Demon Fox, he knew growing up that it was not normal, that it was something that separated him from the other people.

It wasn’t his fault. Nobody was there to teach him; the instructors just placed the tests and readings in front of him and when he failed, they simply assumed that he was either deliberately not trying or was just plain dumb. He couldn’t tell anyone or ask for help; he couldn’t trust any of the instructors, not even Iruka-sensei at the time. Not being able to read may have been a good enough cause to kick him out of the Academy and end his dream of being a ninja.

But he had passed and earned his headband. He was a full ninja and learning to read didn’t seem very important now, not when he was going out on missions. The written portion of the Exam had scared him, but simple guts and determination had seen him through. That had gotten him through his entire life and he didn’t see it changing.

But now he had been found out, and by two people he had come to greatly respect. They were probably not going to train with him anymore; who would want to be around someone so worthless that they couldn’t read. Nobody would want to-

He depressed thoughts were interrupted by a sudden and unfamiliar sensation enveloped his body. He opened his eyes and through his tears he saw that Hinata was hugging him, very tightly in fact. No one had ever embraced him before like this and he had no idea how to respond. He felt a weight on his shoulder and looked to see Kamashin’s hand resting there.

Both of these people knew his secret and were giving him comfort. For Naruto, so used to being shunned by people, this act was overwhelming. His emotions boiled over again and went back to crying for several minutes, letting all his grief out.

When he was finished, he wiped his tears away and looked at both Kamashin and Hinata. The God of Shinobi’s face was impassive and impossible to read, but Hinata was as red and tear-stained as his own. Why was she crying? This was his pain and sadness, not hers

He didn’t understand at all, but it felt nice to have someone there for him.

“Naruto…maybe you should get some more appropriate clothes on.” Naruto looked back to Kamashin, seeing a small, knowing smile on his face, “It not considered good manners to be wearing boxers with having guests over”

Naruto thought on that for a few seconds, before slowly standing up as Hinata removed her arms. He made his way to his bedroom, taking his time to get some pants on. Despite what people thought, he wasn’t stupid. He knew Kamashin was giving an excuse to be alone to collect him-self. He didn’t know why, he had already broken down in front of them, but he appreciated the gesture none the less.

He walked back to the kitchen, trying to think of what to say to those two. His emotions were still a mess when opened his bedroom door and saw that his entire kitchen/living room area was completely covered in paper. The ceiling, walls, floor and even his furniture was covered by what looked to be a single long roll of a scroll. Every square inch was covered in intricate black designs that Naruto couldn’t begin to understand. All he could do was stand there and look at Hinata with a dumbfound expression on his face.

Hinata simply smiled at him, happy that he was looking a bit better and motioned for him to stay where he was. She and Kamashin could walk easily on the scroll, but Naruto couldn’t. He would have to stand there until Kamashin was done.

Speaking of the great and all-powerful God, he was currently walking back and forth along the length of the room, looking at each seal. Hinata could faintly hear him muttering, trying to remember where he had placed ‘it’. What ‘it’ was, she had no idea, but was confident it was to help Naruto. Why else would he have bothered to unravel his scroll?

Kamashin was looking mid-way up one of the walls when he gave a whoop of triumph, placing one finger on a set of storage seals. He channel a small amount of chakra into the seal, creating a large cloud of smoke the temporally obscured him. Naruto leaned as far out from his bedroom threshold as possible, curious as to what was going on.

Both his and Hinata’s jaws dropped when the smoked cleared, for different reasons.

There was Kamashin, with a perplexed expression on face, holding a pair of huge serrated blades. They were the most vicious looking weapons either of the two Genin had ever seen. There were glowing orange runes on the sides of the blade and long chains were hanging from the ends of short grips. It was a weapon that radiant power and sheer badass-ness.

Naruto was almost drooling; this was the coolest weapon he had ever seen and he so wanted to swing it around himself. Hinata on the other hand was outraged; how could Kamashin think such a thing was what Naruto needed at emotional time? It was totally irresponsible and she was one step away from giving him a piece of her mind.

That would be unnecessary, as Kamashin seemed to realized that he had made a mistake.

“Whoops, that wasn’t what I was going for. You’ll both need many more years of training before you’re ready for weapons of this calibre.” He placed the two blades back into the seal with a small puff of smoke, ignoring the sign of relief from Hinata and the whine of disappoint from Naruto.

He looked back at this section of his scroll. “I was sure it was stored there. Where else could it be…Aha, there it is; just one space above.” Kamashin tapped another seal and, when the smoke cleared, was left holding a stack of books. He held them towards the two kids.

“A complete set of Introduction to Literacy, the perfect tool to help someone learn basic reading and reading” Kamashin explained with pride in his voice. The two Genin simply stared, not knowing exactly what to say.

“Why…” Hinata looked at her sensei with narrowed eyes, “to you have those of all things in your scroll?”

Kamashin looked back with a look of indignation “Because I like to be prepared for any and all situation that may arise. Take note of this; being ready for anything, even something that seems impossible, is vital and can save your life.”

He tapped his foot against the paper-covered floor and the paper began to move, receding back into a single large scroll that promptly flew into Kamashin’s hands. He casually walk back to the now normal-looking kitchen, placed the books on the table and took a seat. He looked over to Naruto, waiting with an expectantly look.

Naruto was about to take a step forward, but hesitated. By going out there, he was openly admitting to his weakness, a personal shame he had been hiding for so long. Why were these two helping him? What were they going to get out of it? He hadn’t questioned when they offered to train him; he wanted as much help with his ninja skills as possible. But this was an extremely personal issue, so why would two people he didn’t know very well be willing to go so far for him?

Hinata noticed Naruto’s hesitation, and calmly walked towards him. She gently took his hand, keeping her blush to a minimum, and simply smiled at him.  

Naruto may not have been the smartest ninja, but he was able to understand what Hinata was doing. She wanted to help him because that what she wanted to do. She wasn’t trying to take advantage of him or get a favour out of him later. She was helping him because she was just that nice of a person.

A person like that was someone Naruto wanted to spend more time with.

Slowly, Hinata pulled Naruto forward, leading him towards the table. He looked back and forth between Hinata and Kamashin, noting the patient looks on their faces. They were willing to put in the time for him. The least he could do was to do his best. He took a seat in the middle, with Hinata and Kamashin on either side of him. A book was placed in front of him again, this one with much larger and simpler text.

“Okay Naruto, we’re going to start with the alphabet before dealing with Kanji. It will be a bit tricky at first, but I know you’ll catch on. So first we’ll…”

 

Kamashin proceed to begin Naruto’s first proper lesson on how to read and write, with Hinata helping to explain when he didn’t completely understand. It was slow going, but all three continue onward. The night worn on and while the simply task of reading was being taught, a powerful was being formed, a bond that would have a great impact on the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note: Well…better late than never. I’m extremely sorry that it took me 4 years to get this chapter out, a very embarrassing thing given how short these chapters are. A combination of school, writer’s block and a growing lack of passion have hindered me greatly. 
> 
> Naruto and NaruHina will always have special place as the first major anime and manga series I followed and Naruto and Hinata were one of my first ships. But my passion to write for this as definitely waned and I can’t promise when or if the next chapter will be released. I’ll try to keep chipping away at it, but I can’t make any promises. 
> 
> I do plan on starting some more stories, namely for RWBY and Gundam Seed. I have a lot of ideas that I want to write down, but I’m not going make any kind of promises. I’m simply going to try and get out what I can, when I can.
> 
> Read, Review and tell me what you think.


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